And the Turkish Parliament decision to deploy troops to libya comes in for strong criticism as israel greece and cyprus fear it will lead to a further escalation in the region. Are broadcasting live director our studios in moscow this is International Thomas certainly glad to have you with us now there are reports of a new 2nd u. S. Attack on another convoy in baghdad killing 6 people and wounding 3 more according to iraqi army sources now that is just 24 hours after an American Strike killed a top iranian general in the city cut the money the new strike apparently targeted the Popular Mobilization forces which are iran backed militias 2 of 3 vehicles in the convoy were reportedly found burned the attack took place around 1 oclock am. Time. The Popular Mobilization forces are an Umbrella Organization backed by the Iraqi Government composed of around 40 mostly shia muslim militias is also known for playing a major role in the campaign to liberate the country from eisel several commanders of the p. M. S. Were killed with irans general salomone in the attack yesterday. From one of those we can now cross live to antiwar activist brian becker brian when things like this happen youre someone that id like to speak to to help us kind of wrap our mind around this situation what we have here is another attack being carried out in baghdad no one has taken responsibility as of yet but. Really who could be behind this. Well the United States is and. Donald trump in the pentagon are showing to the people of iraq to the people of iran to the governments of iraq and iran whos going to be the boss of iraq the u. S. Invaded iraq in march 19th 2003 more than a 1000000 iraqis died and would not have otherwise died according to the Lancet Medical Journal the u. K. Medical journal tens of thousands of americans lost their lives or suffered life changing wounds and yet the occupation hasnt worked out american influences is weaker aronian influence is stronger in the region and as a consequence donald trump in the pentagon have decided to go on a murderous rampage these are war crimes these are crimes against humanity its against the law of the of the United Nations its against the u. N. Charter and its a violation of the Us Constitution tomorrow in 50 cities around the country itll be more than 50 by tomorrow its americans are going into the streets saying no to a new war in the middle east because of donald trump and the pentagon continue with this rampage thats exactly where were headed so if we look at. The targets they have or are said to have been leaders of iran backed shiite militias in iraq what kind of retaliatory attack could they carry out could it be something that we see independently of iran or with irans backing as well is this not opening up a huge hodgepodge of disaster. Indeed it does i mean when we use the moniker iran backed militias which is you know technical because iran supports some of the popular no globalization units it sort of disguises the fact that these iraqi people that are being murdered in their own home these are the same fighters who fought against isis who liberated mosul from the control of isis and they enjoy considerable Popular Support you dont have to ideologically or theologically agree with these people to recognize the fact that theyre a wreck is living in iraq and theyre being killed by an American Military occupation force and their own government the Iraqi Government is telling the americans dont do these things and the American Government says we dont have to listen to you because were the boss can they retaliate yes of course they can because theyre at home this is their home they can do a lot of things we saw the protests at the u. S. Embassy the other day that could be her bonjour of a larger nationwide uprising against the continued presence of the American Forces i think the Iraqi Parliament will demand that the americans leave and i think almost all records whether theyre kurds or sunni or shiite well across the border they want the americans gone so lets look at the timing of this this airstrike happened a day after a top iranian commander was killed in baghdad by the u. S. In your opinion are these attacks part of one huge operation is there a plan. Yes i think there is a plan and i think the United States is decided to sort of stop what they consider to be the winning streak of iran iran and the Resistance Forces in the region have succeeded they succeeded in blocking us efforts to overthrow the Syrian Government in lebanon you have the hezbollah and other forces will play a major role in the government of lebanon and iran has considerable support the general who was killed was a revered figure not only in iran but by many iraqis the United States has decided to use brute force to eliminate its what it perceives to be its adversaries and to show them no matter how popular you might be or no matter what your claim to sovereignty might be we have ultimate power we have the 700. 00 pound gorilla and we sit wherever we want to say all right nothing happens in a vacuum brian what do you think the consequences could be for the entire region can we expect. How can we expect this to play out really on a broader level. Well no one knows for sure but were playing with fire right now when i say we i mean the pentagon and donald trump this could quickly erupt into a region wide conflagration i mean iran is a big country its a country beating 1000000 people and has a Strong Military it has influence in many countries in lebanon in syria of course in iraq for the United States to back away from well now back away the extra mile trashing the joint count rience of plane of action and the Iran Nuclear Arms the old imposing new sanctions maximum pressure on iran and now assassinating daily brazenly assessing leaving the top leaders of iran what is the United States expecting of course theyre expecting that there will be retaliation the pentagon and trump must want a wider war in the middle east and they believe the u. S. Can win that wider war this will be a catastrophe for the people of the region and ultimately for the United States are i based on what youve just said im pretty sure how youre going to answer this but the situation is escalating rather quickly right now how do these strikes correlate with trump saying that he killed someone money to stop a war not wage a war you think thats smoke and mirrors. I mean its absolute nonsense i mean when you take out and kill the top military leader of iran thats an act of war lets put the shoe on the other foot lets say iran decided to kill the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff or a 4 star or 5 star American General and did it when he landed at an airport in the 3rd country the American Government would say this was an act of war and the u. S. Government would go to war against iran or against any country that dared to do this when the u. S. Does it to iran your iranian received it not as a way to stop a war what a way to initiate a war and thats in fact with donald trump in the pentagon are doing theyre playing chicken right now theyre saying to the iranians and to the iraqis where the forests youre not we have the colonial overlords you are the colonial subjects and if you push back and reach you know we were prepared for a wider war because we we believe we can win it thats nonsense but thats what theyre thinking right now all right interesting to hear thoughts antiwar activists brian becker brian we hope as the situation develops we can come back to you over the coming days so they can get more analysis from you thank you all right as we mentioned earlier the u. S. Conducted an airstrike on friday that killed 9 other people including influential iraqi and lebanese shia militia leaders a top iranian commander on the money died in that attack they are believed to have been leaving the airport in 2 vehicles when the strike took place on the money lead the powerful could force an elite branch of the Iranian Revolutionary guard corps charged with spearheading foreign operations the unit has been heavily involved in the conflicts in iraq and syria and was instrumental in the territorial defeat of eisel arties killam up and has more on the drone strike and the kind of reaction it has triggered so far. Weve got the u. S. Secretary of state mike pompei o making his rounds on American Media and trying to make the case that somehow this effort by the United States in this recent killing is an effort to deescalate the situation with iran the u. S. Remains committed to deescalation that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this deter further aggression from crossing salami in the Iranian Regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation qassam solomonic is often described as the 2nd most powerful person in the Islamic Republic of iran furthermore he was very very key in the defeat of the i still terrorists throughout the region however as we hear from the u. S. Department of defense this was a defensive measure at the direction of the president the u. S. Military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u. S. Personnel abroad to by killing costume soleimani this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world now it certainly has been a dramatic week for the United States in the middle east and the pentagon seems to believe that qassam solid money was himself responsible for what has taken place in the last few days lets review. Draw some indications that they may be planning additional attacks if that happens and by the way we get word of attacks some type of indication will take preemptive action as well to protect American Forces. To protect america. d now Irans National Security council held its meeting and said that at the emergency meeting that was convened they made quote the necessary decisions and that there is going to be some retaliation at the right time in place for what they say was the u. S. Is biggest strategic mistake in the west asia region now the iranian side is basically completely unified in saying there will be a retaliatory move from the Islamic Republic for this killing now how the Islamic Republic will respond is not yet clear now it is important to note that the u. S. State department and u. S. Media seem to be echoing very loudly that qassam solomonic is somehow responsible for the death of thousands of americans and that he is somehow a very bad guy they echo these allegations though there have been strong criticisms of of donald trump from the democratic side the risk of a much longer military engagement in the middle east as acute and immediately. This action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into now as he is known for donald trump has not been shy on social media defending his decision to take out qassam solomonic however its important to note that in his responses donald trump has actually said that solo money should have been killed many years ago now what is interesting many critics are now wondering if the timing of the killing of a solid mani is in fact a suspicious people wonder if trump did this for political reasons as an attempt to frame himself in a good light as kind of a war hero for the upcoming 2020 Reelection Campaign earlier my colleague you know neil was joined by former u. S. Congressman ron paul he explained how the u. S. Airstrike reflects problems in american politics. Both parties indorse you know interventionism when trouble at times hell say the right thing im coming over im serious im bringing troops home who yelled and screamed the most not about the constitution but it was polo she and her gang were saying oh no he should do that he should do that but. At that time you know removing troops is what we want as a libertarian no nobody should be paying switching parties or at least at this time of year because its all politicized you have to separate the 2 groups of people who think the United States has an eye has an empire to fan and that they are morally justified to do it versus those of us who believe that we should be noninterventionist and follow the constitution and follow International Law and the extra 3 fellows into u. S. Troops are actually being deployed to the region growing tension was not on the table from the start do you think what what this washingtons strategy for the reason for the region as its. Well i think its been very clear this is one thing that trump deserves credit for hes been consistent in his campaign and everything is going on he always wants to escalate you know the antagonism toward iran other place its up and down and back and forth and i sort of im always hopeful that he really doesnt want to another war and i think pompei when he gets up there and says all these really challenging aggressive things then he says we dont want war war why are we doing those things the people who are pushing it in an aggressive manner in our country they probably dont really want war but they want peace on their terms in iran where soleimani was widely revered the assassination has triggered an outpouring of grief and anger 3 days of mourning have been announced and thousands of iranians have turned out in cities across the country to honor the general u. S. Secretary of state my pump aoe discussed events with russias foreign minister in the phone conversation Sergey Lavrov accused his counterpart of violating International Law and urged washington to abandon the use of force to achieve Political Goals with more reaction from across the globe heres arties policy or. The world has been responding with the number one concern being the issue that this will escalate tensions here in the middle east now we have heard from the brand that it was over telly 8 Irans National Security council calling this americas biggest security mistake its biggest strategic mistake which is again being echoed by it has said that the American Actions will be stabilized in this serious is that the americans are feeling the tensions weve heard from going to. The iran bet to group based in lebanon. And he has urged the worlds resistance to get together and exact revenge at the same time one must which also sees becton from gaza has expressed its condolences not iraq where the killing actually took place condemned what are called an aggression that it said would lead to a devastating war the assassination of an Iraqi Military commander is an aggression on iraq as a State Government and people its a flagrant violation of iraqs sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u. S. Troops on iraqi soil syria condemns this act of association. Colored cowardly act this is dont forget that they were killed in a c. B. D. An airport coming on board for civilian aircraft. In a friendly country. Now this way the Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu earlier cut short a trip to greece to return home an emergency meeting was held here in tel aviv between the military and intelligence chiefs to assess the situation all israeli institutions around the world have gone on high alert while on the northern and southern borders here in israel the army too has become more vigilant this is what netanyahu in praising the attack had to say president roh deserves all the credit for working smoothly forcefully the source of israel starts with the United States and its just struggle for spruce security. The American Action was a reaction to a series of military provocations for which iran is responsible we also see with great concern to around 60 of it is in the region we stand before dangerous escalation now the European Response has been somewhat moderate although there has been concern expressed that this will lead to a deescalation it doesnt seem of this anyone is brave enough to come out and strongly and openly criticize the american President Donald Trump nato says it is monitoring the situation particularly keeping an eye on its Training Forces in iraq also monitoring the situation is the Egyptian Government and they have called for a normalization to prevent a new escalation at the same time were hearing from the United Kingdom it says while it recognizes the phrase that sort of money pose it is urging for a deescalation earlier there