COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating
Some have suggested that Tehran was behind the July 13 effort to kill Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. Here at Soldier of Fortune, we don’t see Iran’s handiwork – this time. But, like U.S. intelligence officials, we do see a window of increased threat from Iran against Trump.
Tehran has vowed revenge against Trump and others, in retaliation for assassinating its Quds Force commander, General Qassem Soleimani. The U.S. killed Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike at Baghdad airport.
READ MORE: “We Didn’t Do It:” Tehran Says Not Involved in Plot to Kill Trump
Many officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have said they plan to kill Trump and other senior members of his administration on U.S. soil.
“We will prepare the ground to exact vengeance on the Americans from within their homes, using their companions,” said Esmail Qaani, who succeeded Soleimani, in January 2022.
The regime has announced its hit list.
“We hope we can kill Trump, Pompeo, [former General Kenneth] McKenzie and the military commanders who gave the order” to kill Soleimani, aerospace commander General Amirali Hajizadeh said last year.
Now, though, Tehran may be re-watching a 2020 video, and reading their own tea leaves with a measure of trepidation.
In the clip below, President Trump tells the American people that the U.S. military has eliminated Soleimani, the “world’s top terrorist.” Trump announces the strike at about two minutes into his remarks.
Tehran may still attempt a strike against its arch-enemy, Trump.
If Tehran launches a hit under a second Trump administration, it would be a bold and risky move. Under those circumstances, Tehran knows it would face the type of retribution that was sent against Soleimani. Which makes it all the more imperative that security be tightened now around Trump, while he is not the American president.
Susan Katz Keating is the publisher and editor in chief at Soldier of Fortune.
