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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   1761 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 4, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Iran

A major terrorist attack occurred at General Qasem Soleimanis tomb on the fourth anniversary of his assassination by the US. Over a hundred people have been killed so far. Iranian investigators have claimed the top suspects are suicide bombers, but it remains completely unclear who exactly is responsible. It would be extraordinarily unlikely for the US to be directly implicated, but coming at a time when direct fighting between American soldiers and Iranian militias in Iraq has been ratcheting up (the US just airstruck the PMF headquarters today and killed a top official), it’s not fantastic to also re-open this wound that brought our countries the closest they’ve come to direct conflict.

Update:

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack

The interesting twist here is that the haste with which Iran propaganda blamed Israel for that forced them then to claim that ISIS is actually working for Israel and the US, which is beyond hilarious.

This isn't some new conspiracy, it's not "beyond hilarious" to anyone familiar. ISIS ties to Israel and the US are quite well known.

Looks like Iran is saying there was an "Israeli-Tajik" involved in this case, which would be unsurprising. https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/2024/01/11/iran-claims-israeli-tajik-was-one-of-two-suicide-bombers-in-kerman-attack/

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