Trump’s Phone Call Led to Soleimani Assassination: Ex-Iraqi PM

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, former Iraqi Prime Minister, has claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump requested Baghdad to open negotiations with Iran to carry out assassination of anti-terror Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

Trump allegedly rang him up three days before New Year’s Eve (2020). "Trump called me on New Year's Eve (2020) around 9:00 PM. He said that the Americans do not know the Iranians well, but the Iraqis are the ones who know them well," Abdul Mahdi said, as per a report released by Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel.

"I told him that the Iranians say they are not looking for war as the U.S. does not want it. I then suggested to Trump that he either negotiate directly with the Iranians or resort to tacit agreements like what had been reached in 2003,” he added.

Trump reportedly replied, "You are good negotiators. Do whatever you can in this regard. We are ready for it.”

"The conversation ended at that time and there was an official agreement and invitation for martyr Soleimani to come to Iraq for consultations," he said.

Abdul Mahdi pointed out that the assassination operations was not a decision taken in a day or two, and must have been made a long time ago, implying that Trump had made the contact and raised the request as part of the assassination plan.

After his death in Baghdad on January 3 last year, Pentagon said the “decisive defensive action” of eliminating Soleimani, considered second most powerful person in Iran behind the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was ordered by Trump. He was the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force, designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. He was being driven from Baghdad airport by local allies from the Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU). The deputy head of the PMU, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, a close Soleimani associate, was also killed in the attack.