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General Qasem Soleimani

CIA director warns Iranian Revolutionary Guards general on Iraq

CIA Director Mike Pompeo says he sent letter to Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, warning him the US would hold Tehran accountable for any attacks it conducted on American interests in Iraq, but the general 'refused to open the letter.'

WASHINGTON - CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Saturday that he sent a letter to a top Iranian military official warning him that the United States would hold Tehran accountable for any attacks it conducted on American interests in Iraq.

 

 

Pompeo, who has voiced staunch opposition to Iran, said he sent the letter to General Qasem Soleimani, a leader of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and elite Quds Force, but the general didn't read it.

 

"I sent a note. I sent it because he had indicated that forces under his control might in fact threaten US interests in Iraq," Pompeo said at a defense forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California. "He refused to open the letter—didn't break my heart to be honest with you."

 

CIA Director Mike Pompeo (Photo: MCT)
CIA Director Mike Pompeo (Photo: MCT)
 

 

"What we were communicating to him in that letter was that we will hold he and Iran accountable ... and we wanted to make sure that he and the leadership of Iran understood that in a way that was crystal clear."

 

Pompeo said Iran is working to strengthen its influence throughout the Middle East. As a Republican congressman from Kansas, Pompeo was highly critical of the Iran nuclear deal, which the US and other nations negotiated with Tehran to lift sanctions in exchange for reductions in its nuclear program. Pompeo said Iran is currently in compliance with that agreement.

 

In Iran, Mohammad Mohammadi Golpaygani, the chief of staff for the country's supreme leader, said Soleimani ignored the letter. "Recently, when ... the CIA chief through one of his contacts in the region sent a letter to Gen. Soleimani, he responded by saying, 'I did not either receive or read the letter. I have nothing to tell these people,'" Golpaygani said.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.03.17, 14:07
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