Okaz

The killing of Qasem Soleimani implies that Iran has lost two most prominent persons. One of them is an Iranian — Soleimani, the leader of the armed militias, which have contributed to Iran’s expansion in the region, through violence and sectarian strife, from Lebanon to Iraq, through Syria and even Yemen and Bahrain.

The other person that Iran has lost is former US President Barack Obama. Yes, it is Obama, and this is not an exaggeration. The Iranian supreme leader said in his sermon last Friday that his country could negotiate with anyone, except America.

But Iran negotiated with America during the reign of Obama. And there had been telephone conversation between the current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Obama.

I would like to say Iran lost Obama because the former US president favored Iran and its supreme leader in the hope that they would not be provoked so as to get the nuclear agreement concluded without any obstacle.

Obama achieved Iran’s desire to nominate Nouri Al-Maliki to the post of prime minister of Iraq despite the victory of Dr. Ayad Allawi in elections at that time by a margin of votes, and on that day Obama dispatched his deputy Joe Biden while Tehran sent Soleimani to Iraq with the same mission, and the terrorist general succeeded and eventually Maliki emerged as the prime minister.

Obama turned a blind eye to Tehran’s repression of the Iranian green revolution in 2009, but greeted the Iranians on the occasion of the Iranian New Year of Nowruz and sent the message of an open hand to supreme leader Khamenei!

In his eagerness to not provoke Iran, Obama ignored the Syrian revolution, considering it as a civil war, at a time when the strong Free Syrian Army was controlling larger parts of Syria.

Obama did not say anything about the militias that Soleimani had brought to Syria in defense of Assad, and he even objected to the plan of Gen. David Petraeus, the CIA chief, to arm the Syrian revolutionaries.

And the issue did not stop there as Obama then demanded the countries in the region to share their influence with Iran, instead of confronting the Iranian expansion.

He was also keen not to use force at least at the time of negotiating the nuclear agreement. Obama did all this while Iran was being punished internationally. The United States even allowed Iran to procure wealth. Obama disregarded even the Iranian attempt to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington!

Anyhow Iran, and its supreme leader today, no longer enjoy the presence of their murderous field commander Soleimani. Iran and its supreme leader were also deprived of a lenient American president. The Iranian leader has now ended up facing Trump, who ordered the assassination of Soleimani.

Trump says to the supreme leader: “Be very careful in your words!” So I won’t be surprised if Khamenei misses Obama now.