Top House Republican backs Trump on Iran; Iraqi militias were told to prepare for proxy war
WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) - Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas) is the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and on Thursday, he explained to Kurdistan 24 his support for President Donald Trump’s tough position on Iran.
Asked about relations between the White House and Congress on the issue, McCaul replied, “Very good.” He had been briefed on the issue, and the White House sees Iran, “particularly, as of late, as a specific threat.”
McCaul further explained that the information prompting the US military deployments to the Persian Gulf came from human intelligence, USA Today reported on Friday.
Specifically, Qasim Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told Iran’s militia proxies in Iraq, as well as Lebanese Hizbollah, to be prepared for a confrontation with the US, McCaul said.
Indeed, on Sunday, a rocket was fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to Iraqi government offices, as well as foreign diplomatic missions, including the US embassy.
Read More: Iraq’s military confirms rocket fired into Baghdad’s Green Zone, no casualties
US President Donald Trump tweeted his response, “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran.” Subsequently, a State Department spokesman confirmed, “A low-grade rocket did land within the International Zone near the U.S. Embassy,” adding, “attacks on U.S. personnel and facilities will not be tolerated and will be responded to in a decisive manner.”
The Guardian was the first source to reveal the reason for the US alert on Iran and the dispatch of forces to the region.
Read More: As US forces arrive in Middle East, Pentagon announces more deployments
Citing two intelligence sources, the British paper reported on Thursday that Soleimani had “summoned” to Tehran the leaders of Iraqi militias under Iranian influence and told them to “prepare for a proxy war.”
Britain was “central” to the renewed concerns about Iran, The Guardian said, raising the possibility that British intelligence was the source of the alarming information concerning Soleimani’s meeting with the Iraqi militia leaders.
There is precedent for such figures to attack Coalition forces. In 2007, a Shiite militia close to Iran, Asa’ib Ahl-al Haq, headed by Qais al-Khazali, kidnapped and killed five US soldiers.
Khazali was soon captured and imprisoned by the Coalition, but he was released in 2010, in exchange for a British hostage who had been abducted by his militia.
In the course of the fight against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Shiite militias rose to new prominence. Khazali did fairly well in last year’s elections. He is now a parliamentarian and commands 15 seats in Iraq’s National Assembly.
Like Trump, McCaul, in speaking with Kurdistan 24, took a tough line on Iran. “Any country that attacks our military forces will be met with a swift and deadly response.”
He suggested that Iran’s bellicosity was driven by the difficulties it is now experiencing as a result of US sanctions.
“They’re starting to cripple Iran,” he said, and this “looks like an act of desperation to me.”