WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2020) US President Donald Trump's political future is now in the hands of policymakers in Tehran following his decision to assassinate Quds force commander Major General Qasem Soleimani, former diplomats told Sputnik on Friday.
Soleimani, a senior commander of Iraq's militia forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and other senior officers in the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) were all killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad Airport on Thursday night. Trump took personal responsibility for ordering the attack.
Iranian leaders have vowed to retaliate for Washington's actions, which they described as an act of terrorism.
Former adviser to Senate Republican leaders Jim Jatras told Sputnik that Trump's decision to order the assassination had paradoxically put his future in the hands of the Iranians.
"The ball is now in Tehran's court," Jatras, a former US Foreign Service Officer said. "In a sense, the Iranians now control Trump's political future. I don't think their proximate response will green-light direct hostilities, but they will have to respond to the assassination of a top state official."
Former Canadian diplomat Patrick Armstrong agreed that Trump had compromised his own genuine hopes of creating a more peaceful and responsible US foreign policy.
"I had hopes of Trump but was always disturbed by his respect for US generals, a pretty mediocre bunch, and his antipathy to Iran. Well here we are. Whether he ordered it on his own, was suckered into it by the Deep State or some Deep State operative did it on his own is irrelevant now," he said.
The outbreak of widespread war across the middle East as a consequence of the assignation would throw domestic US politics into chaos too and potentially destroy Trump's previously strong prospects for winning reelection next November, Armstrong warned.
"I would have bet big on his reelection but now all bets are off," he said.
Trump had surrounded himself with hard-line warmongers and was now paying the price of remaining under their influence, Jatras observed.
"One can only guess what Trump was told that made him take this step at this time. But let's keep in mind that whatever 'better deal' he might have sought to reach with Tehran, his appointees never wanted the same thing. They want regime change in Tehran, and will resort to war to get it," he said.
Until now, Trump had avoided falling into the traps set by his hawk advisers, especially when he declined to respond to the Iranian shoot-down of a drone last summer, Jatras recalled.
"But now he's given the neocons, [President George W.] Bush retreads, and Deep-Staters running his administration what they want," he said.
Whatever the Iranian response is, Trump's hardliners will insist on a response to that response, to which the Iranians will respond and then the United States will have to respond again in a cycle of escalation, Jatras predicted.
"We are in a downward spiral that might finally give the warmongers what they want. If that happens, the fatal impact on Trump's political prospects will be the least of anybody's worries," Jatras said.
