Breitbart News Jerusalem Bureau Chief Aaron Klein described the elimination of Qassem Soleimani, who he labeled the “Osama bin Laden of the Shiite world,” as President Donald Trump’s critical deterrence for Iran crossing the “red line” with Tuesday’s organized assault on the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
Klein said Iran-backed militias could not have carried out the embassy attack without Iran’s permission. He offered his remarks on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.
“Soleimani was basically the Osama bin Laden of the Shiite world,” remarked Klein. “Iran is the largest state-sponsor of terrorism in the world, and Soleimani was the commander of that state-sponsor of terror. Today, the [elimination] of General Qassem Soleimani really should be celebrated as … a watershed moment in the war of terror, and [as a] really a great victory for freedom.”
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Klein opined, “Iran has been getting away for years now, and unfortunately even in the last few months, with carrying out significant strikes, terror attacks, and actually using their proxies at times to attack America and to attack our allies. Because they believed they were getting away with it, I believe you saw the escalation [of conflict] 48 hours ago at the U.S. embassy in Iraq.”
Soleimani likely directed Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq, estimated Klein. “Make no mistake about it, there is absolutely no way, I believe, that Iran-backed militias could possibly have laid siege to the American embassy in Iraq without a green light [and] without operational instructions from Iran.”
“I think what you’re seeing today with this targeted elimination of Qassem Soleimani was a direct response to the attack on our American embassy and a response to numerous other attacks in which many Americans were killed, and many of our allies were targeted by this terrorism grandmaster,” added Klein.
Klein continued, “The elimination of Soleimani was maybe the biggest foreign policy decision that Trump has made so far. Maybe number one is getting out of the JCPOA. This is a watershed moment.”
Soleimani directed Iran’s foreign terrorist operations for 20 years, noted Klein, including proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
“The Iranians have to be very nervous right now after this killing because they understand that Trump did something that Obama never would, and I think that the Iranians have been put on notice,” assessed Klein.
Klein stated, “I can’t imagine, after attacking our American embassy in Iraq — and again, that’s basically what [Iran] did — what would they do next if they got away with that? The media’s spinning this like, ‘Oh, America eliminated Soleimani. That’s a major red line.’ No, a major red line is attacking our embassy in Iraq. That’s a major red line.”
“This was not a protest,” said Klein of assorted news media’s description of the attack on the U.S. embassy in Iraq. “This was an organized assault on our American embassy in Iraq. Massive. What would Iran possibly do next if they already got away with breaching the gate of the American embassy?”
Klein went on, “I think the only reason they didn’t get further is because the embassy was fortified. They couldn’t, although unfortunately American diplomats were holed up in a safe room, which reminds me also of the original Benghazi attack.”
“So, unlike the Obama administration in Benghazi, which, again, refused to deploy — in fact, misled the American public about what happened — here, you have Trump, within hours, sending forces to Iraq, and now, taking out — possibly — the terror commander who organized [and] greenlit that assault on the American embassy,” Klein said.
“So if we did do something like eliminate this terror commander — this Osama bin Laden of the Shiite world — after our American embassy was attacked, again, what greater red line could you have had that Iran crossed?” asked Klein.
The elimination of Soleimani amounts to a message of deterrence against further Iranian belligerence, estimated Klein.
Klein concluded, “Then Iran would have understood they can get away with anything. Now they know they can’t. Now they know that America, under Trump, is not the America that they experienced for eight years under the Obama administration, and I think they got that message today.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.
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