Iran’s Gen. Soleimani Tops List of Global Defense, Security Thinkers - FP

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Commander of Iran’s IRGC al-Quds Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani topped Foreign Policy's 2019 list of Global Thinkers in the defense and security field.

The magazine recently published its 10th annual special edition of Global Thinkers with 10 categories of 10 people each.

It placed General Soleimani on top of the list of the most influential people in the defense and security sector, followed by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen.

Soleimani was described as the “public face of Iran’s response to US President Donald Trump’s threats.”

General Soleimani made headlines last July, when he delivered a blistering response to an all-caps tweet addressed to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in which Trump issued a military threat against the Islamic Republic.

Trump threatened Iran with actions “the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.”

In a fiery speech, Soleimani responded, “Trump! You must not threaten our nation and must not insult our president… You must know what you are talking about; ask your predecessors and take advantage of their experiences.”

“We are near you, where you can’t even imagine…Come; we are ready. We are the men of this arena. You know that this war would mean annihilation of all your means. You may begin the war, but it is us who will end it,” he added.

Trump threatened Iran again in a tweet in November inspired by popular American drama series “Game of Thrones.” It featured a picture of himself with the caption “sanctions are coming November 5.”

Soleimani fired back at Trump by posting an Instagram photo with the caption, “I will stand against you.”

Soleimani is widely seen as a strategist in the counter-terrorism operations against Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

He leads Iranian military advisers backing the national armies of Syria and Iraq in their fight against terrorism.

General Soleimani was present on the ground to supervise the decisive stages of operations against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for terrorist ‘ISIS/ISIL’ group], which lost in late 2017 all the territories it had seized in Iraq and Syria.

Several reports have also emerged over the past few years of assassination plots against Soleimani by the US, “Israel” and Saudi Arabia – among the major supporters of the Takfiri terrorists wreaking havoc on the Middle East.

In November 2018, The New York Times reported that Saudi Major General Ahmed al-Assiri took part in a meeting in Riyadh in 2017 that involved plans to assassinate the kingdom’s “determined enemy."

A recent report by Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida also said that Washington gave “Israel” a green light to assassinate Soleimani.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team