A file photo of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel provided the US with key intelligence inputs which helped the US forces confirm and verify the location of slain Iranian top commander Major General Qasem Soleimani, reports in US and Iranian media say. US broadcaster NBC has quoted sources in the American military who were witness to Tel Aviv’s role in the drone strike that took out the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods force commander at Baghdad International Airport on January 3.
Citing unnamed military sources quoted by The New York Times, Iran’s Fars News Agency said in an article on Sunday that US had been trying to kill Soleimani since at least July 2018. Reportedly, Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton, notorious for his hawkish views, had proposed to carry out the assassination of Soleimani as early as May last year.
Significantly, the New York Times has already reported that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had held a telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the lead-up to Soleimani’s killing.
Further, the New York Times reported that US wanted to kill Soleimani and other Iranian military leaders outside Iran, maybe in Iraq or Syria, since targeting them on their home turf would have been particularly difficult.
Reporting on the matter, the Fars News Agency highlighted that Netanyahu was probably the only major ally to have defended the US action, even as other major regional and global powers, which includes Russia, China, the European Union and India, called for restraint on part of both the US and Iran.
Also watch: Will Iran avenge Qasem Soleimani's killing?
