On 3 January 2020, America assassinated Qasem Soleimani, the second most powerful Iranian, in a drone strike near Baghdad airport. Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds force and the army general leading Iran’s regional expansion, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were killed.
American President Donald Trump said he ordered the killing in the national interest, to stop a war. “Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel,” Trump had said but did not provide any evidence to substantiate his allegation.
The assassination instead led to fears of war between the US and Iran which rung alarm bells in world capitals. Iranian shores are the coast to the north of the strategic strait of Hormuz which connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea. A third of the world’s natural gas and 25% of global oil consumption passes through the strait of Hormuz which Iran could block in the event of war.