Hajj Qassem Soleimani and his eternal legacy
The enduring impact of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated in a US drone strike authorized by the then US President Donald Trump in 2020, is undeniable.
Trump is hoping to make a political comeback later this year. But while he is reviled by large sections of the US public, Qassem Soleimani is universally loved across the global south.
The killing of Qassem Soleimani by the United States in January 2020 shocked and enraged the leaders of the world, particularly those in the global south who knew him well. His contributions to the cause of freedom are legendary.
The illegal execution of General Qassem Soleimani by the US was a heinous act by a petulant Empire, pushed by Israel, and aided by powerful local actors in Iraq.
However, the words of his enemies will never define Qassem Soleimani. All Palestinian resistance factions recognize and appreciate his contributions to the cause. He was instrumental in arming all Palestinian resistance groups from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to the PFLP and even Fatah.
According to the PFLP Secretary General, Iran has supplied all Palestinian resistance factions, including Fatah, with weaponry, transported by sea.
He also claims that in order for the Gaza faction to establish their own means of resistance, the late Qassem Soleimani’s tutelage was essential in constructing the procedures by which the factions produced their own means of defense, emphasizing how primitive their defense capabilities were prior to that.
The training took place in the Islamic Republic, Syria, and Lebanon under the auspices of General Qassem Soleimani.
The PFLP Secretary-General added that were it not for the principled support and positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the victories of the Axis of Resistance in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, would not have been possible.
The current Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, who has himself been the target of many US assassination attempts, has openly spoken of his strong ties with the late resistance commander, General Qasem Soleimani.
Maduro speaks warmly of a time when Venezuela was targeted by US hacking. It was Soleimani who arrived and offered to protect Venezuela's citizens from North American intrigue.
In a sincere gesture of support, Palestinians were seen last year carving his portrait into the seashore. And Qassem Soleimani was a friend of millions across the global south.
David, I wonder whether you could just explain exactly how General Qassem Soleimani aided the resistance in Palestine.
Well, as you saw in the film, all of the resistance factions were aided by Soleimani and, indeed, by the Islamic Republic of Iran, most people, of course, don't necessarily know what all the factions are.
Let's recall that in Gaza there is an operations room which controls all of the resistance activities against the Zionist entity, and there are 10 different armed factions involved in the operations. Of course, people know about Hamas.
They quite often refer to the Qassam brigades, which is the military wing of Hamas, by the term Hamas, which is of course incorrect.
People know a little bit perhaps about the Al Quds brigades, which is the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but there are another eight factions including the Al Aqsa Martyrs, the Mujahideen, etcetera, etcetera, which are all involved, including secularist and leftist organizations as well as more Islamically orientated, most of them are mostly Islamically orientated.
All of those factions were supported by Soleimani, including, as the film shows there is Fatah, an organization which is associated with the Al Aqsa martyrs brigades who are fighting in Gaza but, of course, is also associated with the Palestinian Authority, which collaborates against the resistance.
So it's a complicated picture, but all of these factions were supported. It's often said that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is closest to Iran, but Soleimani supported all of the factions.
David Miller, Academic
What was Soleimani's role in Syria and Iraq?
Well, I think that Qassem Soleimani had a very instrumental role, particularly in Syria where ... Soleimani, was responsible for Russia entering the war in Syria in 2015.
In September, when the Syrian Arab Army was struggling with, basically, the hordes of Western backed and sponsored terrorists, including ISIS, that were taking large swathes of Syrian territory and of course, the Russian intervention, particularly the Air Force intervention, managed to push back the ISIS forces into the northeast of Syria.
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
The only armed forces of the Arab world that's actually defending Palestinians at the moment is Yemen, isn't it? And it's the armed forces, not a militia, which is providing that support.
That's right. Well, people refer to often in the mainstream media, the Houthis, as if it's some kind of rebel group which is threatening these boats and caused a total blockade at the Red Sea, but of course, that's not the case.
Since 2015 the Ansarullah movement, which is fighting a war against the Saudi backed intervention, has become the government effectively (as it) controls 85% of the country.
There is a small token presence of the other contested government in Yemen, but it's not even based in Yemen. It's based in a luxury hotel in Saudi (Arabia).
David Miller, Academic
How do you see the current situation in Gaza?
The situation in Gaza now is an ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people there but not only in Gaza, also in [the] West Bank.
It is of course, a publicly declared genocide, declared by members of the far right Zionist regime, including Netanyahu himself, but at the same time of course, we've actually seen a resounding defeat of the Israeli occupation forces on the ground inside Gaza.
The casualty rate is much higher than is being admitted by the Zionist regime, where effectively, for example, the Golani Brigade has pulled out of Northern Gaza and where they are incurring, not only casualties, but loss of armored vehicles, tanks, bulldozers, on an almost daily basis, and so therefore, you know, overall this is a resounding defeat for the Zionist regime.
If they can't withstand an on the ground urban warfare against a relatively poorly equipped resistance force made up of various factions inside Gaza, how are they going to confront on the ground forces like Hezbollah, for example?
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
How do Palestinian leaders view Soleimani?
Well, all the Palestinian leaders are very, very positive about Soleimani. You will recall, going back there was a split between effectively Iran and Hamas; at least, not Palestinian Islamic Jihad, over the question of Syria, largely backed the other side, in the attempt to topple the Assad government.
This, of course, was backed by NATO which involves Britain and the Americans as well. But that split which has lasted for four or five years has been fairly effectively healed and it's even been the case of course that the Syrian government have been supplying a support to Hamas along with the needs, of course, the main kind of support that comes to, not just the Palestinian factions but also to the axis of resistance more generally, comes from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
David Miller, Academic
Action on the Golan Heights
Basically what Syria has been doing since October the seventh, and we have actually seen the resistance axis responding in a very controlled fashion.
Why? Because of course, they know what the Israeli handlers, that is the UK, the US and EU member states, want is an escalation, a regional escalation and in Syria of course.
Syria is facing hostile occupation and annexation of its territory from the north down to the southeast, including by Israel in the south.
So, rather than responding to the provocations that are coming on an almost daily basis from the Zionist regime, what they have done in Syria is to open up a territory within Syria for the Palestinian resistance factions, and the Islamic resistance factions, to carry out attacks on the US occupation bases as well as on the Zionist occupied Golan territories
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
The key players behind the assassination of Qassem Soleimani
On January 3rd, 2020, the legendary general Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the US Empire and its proxies in Baghdad. The question of whether Israel influenced the US into making the risky move has been raised numerous times.
Donald Trump told Israeli journalist Barak Ravid that he was very disappointed in Israel over the assassination. Trump also intimated that he will ultimately divulge more saying cryptically that 'people will be hearing about that at the right time'.
Palestine declassified looked into the assassination and identified the key parties involved.
It was a joint operation by the United States, Israel, the Kurdish Regional Government, and Germany. The US Ramstein Air Base in Germany coordinated the drone strikes that killed Soleimani. It is reported that spies in the Syrian airport of Damascus provided the US with information regarding the moment his plane took off for Baghdad.
The courageous general is said to have replaced his cell phone three times in the six hours before his flight. This process was being closely observed by an Israeli intelligence agency in Tel Aviv, alongside liaisons from the US Joint Special Operations Command.
Three US Delta Force sniper teams encircled Baghdad airport in preparation for the plane's landing. To get access to the vital areas the US Delta Force operators disguised themselves as maintenance workers. One of the snipers had a camera attached to his rifle, which broadcasted a live stream to the US Embassy in Baghdad where the Delta Force commander was watching, while three US drones hovered overhead.
The CTG group, an agency of the Kurdish Regional Government, was also implicated in the assassination. One of them pretended to be the ground crew and guided the jet onto the tarmac. As the martyr walked off the plane, CTG spies masquerading as baggage handlers identified him.
The ISA intelligence support activity commonly known as Task Force Orange was another US military force implicated in the killing, they had the exact coordinates of the martyr’s automobile in order to time the drone attack that took his life. Following the killing, a Kurdish CTG spy masquerading as a police officer approached the flaming truck and photographed the martyr's body for his US bosses.
What do you make of the Kurdish involvement in the killing of Qassem Soleimani Of course; the leader of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces was with Soleimani at the time.
We see various factions of Kurdish groups involved in these kinds of conflicts, their current government, of course, is a US ally and it does all sorts of activities for the US.
There are other Kurdish factions who have worked closely with the Israelis, as well as with the CIA. And you can see that the way in which they're involved in, first of all, direct terrorist attacks inside Iran, and this particular attack here in Iraq, and they're involved in other places, too, including in Syria.
The Israelis use some of the supposedly leftist Kurdish groups as pawns effectively to carry out their dirty tricks. Remember the Mahsa Amini case where her cousin was a member of the Kurdish leftist group, Komala, which of course works very closely with the Israelis.
So you can see that there are multiple ways in which different Kurdish groups are aligned with the US and or Israel and are engaged in doing their dirty work.
David Miller, Academic
It has been said that the Russians had great respect for Soleimani, do you agree?
Absolutely, as I said, it was thanks to Soleimani's discussions with President Putin and with members of his administration, that Russia actually intervened in September 2015.
So there was a tremendous amount of respect for Soleimani, actually in all the countries of what I would call the resistance axis against Western imperialism and Neo colonialism.
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
David, what do you make of Trump's comments regarding Israel's role in the killing of Soleimani?
Well, they are curious. I mean, we don't know exactly what they mean. But he's referring presumably to some kind of pressure or information passed to the Americans by the Israelis, which is part of the operation, which must have been deceptive or unfairly pressuring.
And of course, Trump is a very odd character, really very much like Elon Musk, you know, there is a kind of strange libertarianism. But the difficulty with libertarianism in the US context is it's very it's very difficult to break free of Zionism.
Of course, his own family he has some very strong Zionist influences, like Jared Kushner, for example, who's in particular aligned with the extremist Chabad organization.
So in terms of a kind of interesting and conflicted character, so on the one hand, he wants to be isolationist and not pursue the kind of projecting US power overseas.
On the other hand, the counterterrorism apparatus and intelligence agencies would appear to be able to to influence them and make sure that he doesn't carry out threats to be much more isolationist, which of course would be less involvement in assassinating people like Soleimani.
David Miller, Academic
Can you tell us about the apparent involvement of the US Delta Force in Gaza and its role in the killing of Qassem Soleimani?
I assume you mean the participation of the Delta Force in the assassination of General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al Muhandis.
The US and the UK consistently use what they call special forces in the arena's of destabilization, or regime change or territory grab, either by proxy or directly, as they've done both in Syria and these special forces, whether it's Delta Force or others, are here actively on the ground in Syria, both British and American and other NATO member states, operating alongside the al Qaeda dominated terrorists in the Northwest but also, particularly, in the south and south east.
And in the Northeast where of course the US has its occupation, unlawful occupation, military bases.
And so therefore, the appearance of the Delta Force in the occupied territories, and one assumes in Gaza, fighting alongside the IOF and there were reports of them overseeing the use of nerve gas against the resistance factions in the tunnels that hadn't yet come to fruition, but I think a lot of publicity of that plan potentially derailed it.
So it's not surprising that we see this involvement of, let's say, the clandestine forces under the control, largely, of the deep state and the clandestine intelligence agencies in the US and the UK.
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
You said Soleimani and Iran were involved in arming Palestinian factions, basically, all factions across the board. Would you clarify that, please?
That's right, the clip we saw there was from the PFLP though, again, people don't know much about the all of these alphabet soup of Palestinian factions but the PFLP is two factions, two different factions.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, which of course is an organization which has largely been based in recent years in Damascus, Syria.
Some of those organizations are leftist, secularists, but they're involved along with the other Islamic factions, such as the Qassam Brigades or the Al Quds Brigades, the Palestinian Mujahedeen. And these are all run by the Iranians and part of the strategy has been to try and bring the resistance together and that's been one of the key developments which has underpinned what's happened after October the seventh in which many of the factions, at least five of the factions, took part in the operation, and then that sort of rapprochement between the different wings of the Palestinian resistance movement was brought about in part by negotiations and the help from Soleimani and the IRGC, the, the Quds Force, the overseas force of the Islamic Republic Guards Corps.
So the role that Iran has played has been very significant. But of course, it's also not the case that Iran directs these factions as proxies. And you can see that that doesn't happen because they have all sorts of politics themselves.
So what happened on October the seventh was a Palestinian initiative carried out by Palestinian factions, but of course, the support that Iran gives to both the Palestinian factions, and indeed, of course, to Hezbollah and to the Syrian Government, is very significant, indeed, in terms of not just money and weapons, but also the technology of making the weapons which of course has been the case, for example, with Yemen, where the technology has been passed to them, they can then make their own weapons.
David Miller, Academic
What is your overall impression of General Soleimani and his legacy?
That he is more dangerous as a martyr than he was even as General Soleimani in life, because where the US completely underestimated, or perhaps don't have any understanding of the culture of martyrdom that exists within much of the resistance axis, is that when someone as iconic as General Soleimani is martyred by the very forces that he is uniting the resistance against.
What does this do? This strengthens the resistance and of course it helps to recruit new members to that resistance.
So what the US has done by assassinating, not only Soleimani, but also Muhandis, will only be to strengthen the resistance in the long term and to increase the unity of the resistance across the countries that make up the resistance axis.
I mean, for example, we know that Soleimani was involved in the normalization between various members of the axis and various members of the Palestinian resistance factions, particularly after the war against Syria.
Also, of course, Seyyed Nasrallah, the Hezbollah General Secretary, was also heavily involved in that.
But you know, Soleimani’s legacy has to be the unity of the resistance and the understanding of the new generation of what it means to be a part of that resistance and what exactly they are fighting against.
Vanessa Beeley, Journalist
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