Illustrative image. (the Tasnim News Agency)
Brigade General Esmail Qaani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s elite Quds Force, visited Baghdad last month and convinced Iranian-backed armed factions there to halt attacks on United States forces, Reuters reported on February 18, citing multiple Iranian and Iraqi sources.
The Iranian commander met representatives of several factions in Baghdad International Airport on January 29, less than 48 hours after Washington blamed Iranian-backed forces for the killing three U.S. troops at the Tower 22 base in Jordan, the sources said.
According to the sources, Brig. Gen. Qaani did not leave the airport during the visit, fearing he could be targeted in the same location where his predecessor Qassem Soleimani was killed four years earlier.
>“The Iranians learned their lesson from the liquidation of Soleimani and did not want this to be repeated,” the source said.
The commander told the factions that by drawing American blood risked a heavy U.S. response, including strikes on their senior commanders, destruction of key infrastructure or even a direct retaliation against Iran, sources said.
The next day Kataib Hezbollah, the largest of Iranian-backed factions in Iraq, announced it was suspending attacks. However, a smaller but very active faction, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, said that it would continue attacks, arguing that U.S. forces would only leave by force.
Iranian-backed factions, united under the banner of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, began launching attacks against U.S. forces in the country and neighboring Syria on October 17 in response to the Israeli war on the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Washington’s unwavering support for it.
There have been no attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since February 4, compared to more than 20 in the two weeks before Qaani’s visit.
“Without Qaani’s direct intervention it would have been impossible to convince Kataib Hezbollah to halt its military operations to de-escalate the tension,” a senior commander in one of the Iranian-backed factions said.
A high-ranking Iranian security official said that the commander’s visit was “successful, though not entirely, as not all Iraqi groups consented to de-escalate.”
Despite the ceasefire against U.S. forces, Iranian-backed factions are still launching attacks against Israel from time to time, mainly using suicide drones.
Reuters’ report shows how Iran has been working to de-escalate tensions in the region which were caused by the Israeli war on Gaza. Despite Iran’s efforts, the U.S. continues to support the war, which has so far claimed the lives of more than 28,000 Palestinians.
arabs and muslims are cowards. this is well known.
and jews and anglos are back stabbing cockroaches
the jokes is on you as well, reuters post it after time of israel lmfao… do you want to believe them so be it. time of zionist don’t post anything against them… how did reuters report went up on time of zionist before their own site?
also, “according to the sources” that could be your mother for all we know. oh who write this shit? parisa hafezi – propaganda whore / ahmed rasheed – yanuqi pakistani dog / timour azhari – another propaganda whore.
now they write about it? okay…
i did read the whole thing and it says nothing new or groundbreaking that we didn’t know. iran want to kick the yanquis out… it is up to them to believe them or not.
i say this much the people that wrote this report are all fuking dogs… (iran-pakistan flare-up rooted in restive borderlands, not mideast strife) it was nothing… you know who wrote that shit? parisa hafezi lol
no, they are prudent. they know that it’s impossible to get rid of insane people
nonsense iran uses arab shunnis to kill shia and other countries world wide let american s also due every day.in masses.
iran armed shia groups in iraq to defend themselves against wahhabis (sunnis). it was the us, israel, turkey, qatar, uae and ksa that funded and armed these wahhabis (sunnis) in iraq and syria.
the sdf in syria has a lot of sunnis that work under the us and they are ally of ksa, uae and qatar. name one arab sunni country that is fighting zionist right now i wait… oh yeah they were all laughing with zionists and making peace deals with them lmfao.
what a pussy. iran is all talk it seems. sad
this is fake news spread by south front
this is the true face of iran.
…since the report was distributed via “reuters”, there is a more than 50% chance that it has been modified at least.
half-truths are more dangerous than lies, and the question always arises about the motivation of such publications…
i read the whole thing on time of zionist-stan and there was nothing new… you should question the timing of this report… divide and conquer.
biden might as well get the troops out of iraq to win some free points during election free point for him. i don’t believe these iranians would just stop the attacks on the us for no good reasons. we will never know what they say behind the close doors and the fact zionists crying about it shows something happened that they don’t like.
i’m 100% sure people are going to bitch to egypt as well for not allowing palestinians inside egypt. they already forgot what the zionists were saying openly… holy shi*. there are few moles here copy-pasting zionists propaganda…
oh egypt bad… oh iran bad… oh hezbollah bad… why they never say anything to jordan? ksa? uae? qatar? no, only attack the resistance groups. hmmm when was it again that they did the same thing… hmmm during the rise of isil.
“iran is killing freedom fighters” – “iran is killing sunnis” – “the iraqi pmus are the real terrorists not these wahhabis that are beheading everyone” – “assad is killing civilians only”.
no? people don’t remember those times? the main point was to divide and conquer…
well the mad dog strategie allways work well for the usa. make everyone believe you will do the worst if they offend you and they will not dare. how beeing the mad dog of earth and the good guy at the same time is possible well ask the western and westernleaning media on the world they are selling it to the masses.
why would they do that?
i’m not sure as well but the zionists aren’t happy about it. they were talks behind closed doors and the us mentioned they want to leave iraq and (maybe) syria.
that is a massive news if it is true. also don’t forget the us said they going to attack iraqi’s pmus in waves… what happened to that?
not for one sec i believe iran would backdowns when they have the upper hand, they got what they want and agree to something. remember iran nuclear deal? how mad zionists were…
also, this is from reuters and time of zionist-stan report. for one sec just look up the people that wrote this report… all of them write propaganda for israel/us against iran and middle eastern countries. why should you believe these fuks now?
“according to the sources” oh boy i wonder who were these people sources… isil/wahhabis in iraq/ ohhh most likely their sources were themselves. yes during times like this… people shit talk and fighting each other yes like russia (oh wait nvm).
south front has joined the propaganda mission.
consistent – the palestinians are being sold out by self-interested traders on both sides of the arab political divide. ironic that it was the noted imperialist churchill who said “our choice was war or dishonour – we have had dishonour now, we will have war later”.