5 Things You Should Know About Iran and Their Government

5 Things You Might Not Know about Iran

OGN NEWS Contributor | Friday, January 10, 2020

#Iran #world #top headlines#christian persecution

The Trump administration today announced new sanctions for Iran even as it appeared to step back from initial claims that it ordered the drone strike on Gen. Qassem Soleimani because of an “imminent strike” he was planning on U.S. personnel.

“This was gonna happen, and American lives were at risk,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said when asked for his definition of “imminent."

The new sanctions cover construction, manufacturing, textiles, mining, steel and iron, while other sanctions target specific Iranian officials, USA Today reported.

“The president has been very clear: we will continue to apply economic sanctions until Iran stops its terrorist activities and commit that it will never have nuclear weapons," Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said.

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The world is anxiously waiting to see if there will be more fallout after the Jan. 3 drone strike that killed Soleimani and several others. On Wednesday, in retaliation for the general’s death, Iran launched dozens of missile strikes at Iraqi military bases housing U.S. troops. There were no casualties in the attacks, although U.S. intelligence and other world leaders believe Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian airliner that crashed near Tehran, hours after the missiles were launched. The crash killed all 176 passengers.

So how did the United States get to this point? Are the U.S. and Iran so different? Are Christians really being persecuted by the Islamic country?

Here are 5 things you may not know about Iran:

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Naruedom

1. GENERAL QASSEM SOLEIMANI WAS TARGETED FOR PLANNING AN 'IMMINENT' ATTACK ON U.S. SOLDIERS

Although some critics of President Trump’s action have labeled the drone strike an assassination, most agree Soleimani was a terrorist mastermind.

CNN reported Jan. 3—the day of the attack that killed Soleimani—that a congressional source revealed that American intelligence had determined the general “was in multiple countries in the region planning specific attacks on U.S. interests, including U.S. personnel.” That source added that the Iranian plans were developing beyond normal chatter.

Meanwhile, a senior administration official told CNN they had evidence Soleimani traveled to Baghdad to execute future hits on American interests.

Tony Shaffer, a former intelligence officer with the Department of Defense, outlined the case against the general in an opinion piece for Real Clear Politics. It is important to note that Shaffer is a member of the Trump 2020 advisory board.

In the article, Shaffer said his opinion is shaped by his experience going “toe-to-toe with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Afghanistan.” That experience included interrogating an IRGC “enabler.”

“As the leader of the IRGC’s Quds Force, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, Soleimani was among America’s most vociferous and aggressive foes,” Shaffer wrote. “He was personally responsible for the deaths of thousands, including the killing and maiming of hundreds of American soldiers. He was an evil, remorseless man, and his death is a positive development for the entire world—including his own country.”

Shaffer maintains Iran was funding terrorist activity in Afghanistan and that Soleimani was directing those operations.

“Yet previous administrations refused to act on intelligence that would have allowed us to take him out far sooner,” Shaffer wrote, later adding, “Had it not been for the timely strike ordered by President Trump, Soleimani would have carried out further atrocities against U.S. troops and American interests—including an ‘imminent’ attack that the administration claims Soleimani was preparing to launch at the time of his death.

“This man was a terrorist in charge of an IRGC element that had been declared a terrorist organization. He was traveling, in violation of U.N. sanctions, to Iraq, with the apparent intent of inflicting harm on U.S. service members in the region. He was in a combat zone as a combatant in uniform—the legal basis to target him could not have been clearer, and the same goes for the moral justification.”

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Chris McGrath/Staff, pictured is Iranian General Qassem Soleimani

2. THE RANCOR IN U.S.-IRANIAN RELATIONS PRE-DATES THE 1979 IRANIAN HOSTAGE CRISIS

When discussing the source of the protracted conflict between America and Iran, most people point to the Iranian revolution that ended the Shah’s rule, ultimately leading protestors to storm the U.S. embassy and taking 52 Americans hostage, an ordeal that lasted 444 days. Their capture prompted the United States to impose sweeping—and debilitating—financial sanctions and curtail diplomatic ties.

But relations actually began to deteriorate more than two decades earlier when, in 1953, the CIA assisted in a military coup that successfully removed Iranian leader, Mohammad Mossadegh.

“At the height of Cold War tensions, Mossadegh pledged to nationalize Iran's oil fields, which was widely seen as both popular in Iran and a victory for the then USSR,” a CNN report said. “The British, who controlled the oil fields, enlisted the help of the CIA to overthrow Mossadegh.”

Within the last year, tensions have escalated further as Iran has responded to the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign by attacking facilities used by U.S. military personnel in Iraq, seizing commercial ships, causing infrastructural destruction in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and downing a U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle, according to a paper by the Congressional Research Service