US President Donald Trump said that the elimination of the commander of the Iranian Quds special forces, Kassem Suleimani, was intended to prevent a war.
“Last night, we took action to stop the war. We took no action to start it,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-au-Lago residence.
At the same time, Trump repeated that Washington is not seeking a regime change in Iran.
The president also accused the murdered Suleymani of destabilizing the situation in the Middle East for twenty years, and that he is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Trump said that it was he who stood behind the latest attacks on the Americans in Iraq, behind the rocket fire at the base at Tikrit, behind the organization of riots at the US Embassy in Baghdad.
“What the US did yesterday had to be done a long time ago. Many lives would have been saved,” Trump added.
On Friday, it became known about the death in Baghdad of Suleimani and the deputy commander of the Shiite militia of Iraq, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The operation to eliminate them was carried out in Iraq by the US military at the direction of US President Donald Trump.
Later, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei promised that the killing of Kassem Suleimani would not be left without revenge.