Soleimani Takedown on Table Since June of 2019

Authorization to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was granted seven months ago, in June, with a condition that President Trump set, per current and former senior administration officials.

The Condition That Decided Soleimani’s Death

It turns out that President Trump issued a directive way back in June of 2019 to kill Soleimani, under one condition – that Trump would have the final sign-off on the operation, and only if Soleimani crosses the line of killing an American.

“There have been a number of options presented to the president over the course of time,” one senior official said, saying that killing Soleimani was on a list of responses to aggression from Iran for some time.

Then-national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also wanted the operation to kill Soleimani, per NBC News.

Soleimani’s assassination had been a discussion that came up in 2017, when administration officials, including then-national security adviser, retired Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, included Soleimani’s death as an element of a maximum pressure campaign on Iran, although it was “not something that was thought of as a first move.”

The final order to kill the Iranian general, however, came after Iranian-backed militia stormed Baghdad’s US embassy starting Dec. 31. Soleimani was killed on Jan 3 after an airstrike in Iraq, and from Trump’s comments on the matter, the former Quds Force commander was planning attacks against Americans, making him a threat to national security.