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Analysis | Missile attacks on US bases weren’t Iran’s real revenge on Donald Trump. This is
- Tehran’s apparent ‘standing down’ does not mean the books are closed on Trump’s assassination of General Qassem Soleimani
- The lull may signify the ‘drinking of a cup of poison’
Reading Time:4 minutes
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Iran’s apparent “standing down” after firing missiles at bases housing American military personnel in Iraq – an act of retaliation after the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani – should not lead us to the hurried conclusion that the books are closed on the matter.
It would equally be simplistic to assume that by killing Soleimani, the United States has achieved its primary objective for doing so – curtailing Iran’s regional adventurism.
“The reasoning for these arguments can be found in the genesis of Iran’s extraterritorial activities, or what US President Donald Trump chooses to call its “malign behaviour”, which dates to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and found expression in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s idea of the “export of revolution”.
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The US has recognised that the export of revolution has been central to the regime since its inception in 1979. A declassified Central Intelligence Agency document dating back to those days stated that “if Iran fails to export its revolution, the country will be isolated in an unfriendly environment of hostile regimes”.
It was also underscored that in the calculation of the Iranian leadership, the survival of the Islamic Republic was closely tied “to the overthrow of pro-Western regimes in the Middle East”.
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