Pompeo says killing of Suleimani is part of 'bigger strategy' to deter US foes [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Comments by US secretary of state – which also apply to Russia and China – contradict earlier assertion that the general posed imminent threat to US

Guardian staff and agencies
Mon 13 Jan 2020 21.10 EST

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has said Qassem Suleimani was killed as part of a broader strategy of deterring challenges by US foes that also applies to China and Russia, further diluting the assertion that the senior Iranian general was targeted because he was plotting imminent attacks on US assets.

In his speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, Pompeo made no mention of the threat of imminent attacks planned by Suleimani. It only was in response to a question that he repeated his earlier assertion that pre-empting such plots was the reason for the 3 January US drone strike on Iran’s second most powerful official.

His speech, The Restoration of Deterrence: The Iranian Example, focused on what he called a Trump administration strategy to establish “real deterrence” against Iran following earlier Republican and Democratic policies that encouraged Tehran’s “malign activity”.

Democratic and some Republican lawmakers have challenged the administration over the self-defence rationale supported by undisclosed intelligence over imminent attacks. US president Donald Trump has said the potential targets included four US embassies.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/14/pompeo-says-killing-of-suleimani-is-part-of-bigger-strategy-to-deter-us-foes