Soleimani Replacement Tasked with Avoiding Direct Conflict with United States

When Donald Trump was in office, he had the opportunity to assassinate a notorious terrorist... Qassem Soeimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

The man who has effectively replaced Soleimani, Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, has a bit of a different approach.  

While Soleimani looked more for direct conflict, Qaani has taken a more indirect approach, allowing militant groups to do his dirty work, hoping to avoid a direct conflict with the United States. 

The New General 

The biggest thing I have noticed about Qaani is that he is hardly as visible as Soleimani was, working more behind the scenes.  

But make no mistake about it, this man is just as dangerous, if not more so, than Soleimani.  

Qaani is backing militia groups throughout the Middle East that are doing Iran’s bidding for them, creating havoc and volatility that impacts the United States, draining resources and assets while not directly taking on the United States.  

The Houthis, Shia paramilitary, and even Hamas can all be linked back to Qaani.  

By eliminating Soleimani, other than the obvious benefit of removing a terrorist from the picture, the secondary goal was to detach all these groups from Iran’s control. 

That may have temporarily been the case, but reports have surfaced that it is Qaani now visiting these groups not to deter them from attacking bases where U.S. troops are, but instead to keep the attacks at a level that will not draw direct conflict between the United States and Iran.  

His mission, however, seems to have failed after the death of three U.S. troops via a drone attack.  

If Qaani and Iran are unable to get these groups under control, and quickly, Joe Biden will eventually have no choice but to jump in with both feet rather than dip his toes in the waters of war.