{"id":21245,"date":"2021-01-17T17:12:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T17:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=62da09867fc52597cd7e203127f315f7"},"modified":"2021-01-17T17:12:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T17:12:02","slug":"canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/17\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada knew about plan to assassinate Iranian Gen. Soleimani before it happened"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"\n              sqs-block-image-figure\n              intrinsic\n            \"\n        >\n          \n        \n        \n\n        \n          \n            \n          \n            <img class=\"thumb-image\" data-image=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5ddedc989ab6b86728e310e4\/1610903501209-MXRV86QUK3SKB66L3OP8\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kDFgITcRoterXoQdllT5ciUUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcV7ZyRJyI8bwZiMJRrgPaAKqUaXS0tb9q_dTyNVba_kClt3J5x-w6oTQbPni4jzRa\/Trump+coup.jpg\" data-image-dimensions=\"1200x675\" data-image-focal-point=\"0.5,0.5\" alt=\"Trump coup.jpg\" data-load=\"false\" data-image-id=\"60046fcdf838875dc542f7a7\" data-type=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/images.squarespace-cdn.com\/content\/v1\/5ddedc989ab6b86728e310e4\/1610903501209-MXRV86QUK3SKB66L3OP8\/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kDFgITcRoterXoQdllT5ciUUqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKcV7ZyRJyI8bwZiMJRrgPaAKqUaXS0tb9q_dTyNVba_kClt3J5x-w6oTQbPni4jzRa\/Trump+coup.jpg?format=1000w\" \/>\n          \n        \n          \n        \n\n        \n      \n        <\/figure>\n      \n\n    \n  \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|zh-CN');return false;\" title=\"Chinese (Simplified)\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Chinese (Simplified)\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|en');return false;\" title=\"English\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"English\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|fr');return false;\" title=\"French\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"French\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|de');return false;\" title=\"German\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"German\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|it');return false;\" title=\"Italian\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Italian\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|pt');return false;\" title=\"Portuguese\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Portuguese\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|ru');return false;\" title=\"Russian\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Russian\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened#\" onclick=\"doGTranslate('en|es');return false;\" title=\"Spanish\" class=\"gflag nturl\"><img src=\"https:\/\/gtranslate.net\/flags\/blank.png\" height=\"24\" width=\"24\" alt=\"Spanish\" \/><\/a>\n\n\n\n<br \/><select onchange=\"doGTranslate(this);\"><option value=\"\">Select Language<\/option><option value=\"en|af\">Afrikaans<\/option><option value=\"en|sq\">Albanian<\/option><option value=\"en|ar\">Arabic<\/option><option value=\"en|hy\">Armenian<\/option><option value=\"en|az\">Azerbaijani<\/option><option value=\"en|eu\">Basque<\/option><option value=\"en|be\">Belarusian<\/option><option value=\"en|bg\">Bulgarian<\/option><option value=\"en|ca\">Catalan<\/option><option value=\"en|zh-CN\">Chinese (Simplified)<\/option><option value=\"en|zh-TW\">Chinese (Traditional)<\/option><option value=\"en|hr\">Croatian<\/option><option value=\"en|cs\">Czech<\/option><option value=\"en|da\">Danish<\/option><option value=\"en|nl\">Dutch<\/option><option value=\"en|en\">English<\/option><option value=\"en|et\">Estonian<\/option><option value=\"en|tl\">Filipino<\/option><option value=\"en|fi\">Finnish<\/option><option value=\"en|fr\">French<\/option><option value=\"en|gl\">Galician<\/option><option value=\"en|ka\">Georgian<\/option><option value=\"en|de\">German<\/option><option value=\"en|el\">Greek<\/option><option value=\"en|ht\">Haitian Creole<\/option><option value=\"en|iw\">Hebrew<\/option><option value=\"en|hi\">Hindi<\/option><option value=\"en|hu\">Hungarian<\/option><option value=\"en|is\">Icelandic<\/option><option value=\"en|id\">Indonesian<\/option><option value=\"en|ga\">Irish<\/option><option value=\"en|it\">Italian<\/option><option value=\"en|ja\">Japanese<\/option><option value=\"en|ko\">Korean<\/option><option value=\"en|lv\">Latvian<\/option><option value=\"en|lt\">Lithuanian<\/option><option value=\"en|mk\">Macedonian<\/option><option value=\"en|ms\">Malay<\/option><option value=\"en|mt\">Maltese<\/option><option value=\"en|no\">Norwegian<\/option><option value=\"en|fa\">Persian<\/option><option value=\"en|pl\">Polish<\/option><option value=\"en|pt\">Portuguese<\/option><option value=\"en|ro\">Romanian<\/option><option value=\"en|ru\">Russian<\/option><option value=\"en|sr\">Serbian<\/option><option value=\"en|sk\">Slovak<\/option><option value=\"en|sl\">Slovenian<\/option><option value=\"en|es\">Spanish<\/option><option value=\"en|sw\">Swahili<\/option><option value=\"en|sv\">Swedish<\/option><option value=\"en|th\">Thai<\/option><option value=\"en|tr\">Turkish<\/option><option value=\"en|uk\">Ukrainian<\/option><option value=\"en|ur\">Urdu<\/option><option value=\"en|vi\">Vietnamese<\/option><option value=\"en|cy\">Welsh<\/option><option value=\"en|yi\">Yiddish<\/option><\/select>\n\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=23489112\" data-patreon-widget-type=\"become-patron-button\">Become a Patron!<\/a><p class=\"\">Written by: Ese<\/p><p class=\"\">Canada\u2019s former top military commander says that the U.S. gave Canada a heads-up on its plan to kill top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, according to his interview with the Globe and Mail this past week.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">General Jonathan Vance recently retired from his position as Canada\u2019s Chief of Defence Staff, but left with some key information about Gen. Soleimani\u2019s assassination.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">In his interview, the Globe and Mail reports him saying that the Pentagon alerted Ottawa on its plans to kill Gen. Soleimani so that it could put in \u201cforce protection measures\u201d in case of Iranian counterstrikes.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">However, right after the assassination, Canada\u2019s National Defence Minister, Harjit Sajjan, said that the United States <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/politics\/canada-didn-t-have-details-on-planned-u-s-strike-that-killed-soleimani-sajjan-1.4755539\"><span>did not provide Canada with the details <\/span><\/a>of its targeted U.S. drone strike that killed Gen. Soleimani in Iraq.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\"><br>In an interview with CTV\u2019s Power Play host, Even Solomon, in January 2020, Sajjan said they \u201cdidn\u2019t have the exact information for the event that took place\u201d but just that the U.S. indicated it would \u201ctake action.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">Yves Engler, a Montreal-based political activist who has authored books on Canadian foreign policy, says he thinks that what Canada had said initially was just a \u201cpropaganda line\u201d because \"they didn't want to take any responsibility for complicity in what the U.S. did.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">He says that Gen. Vance spoke about it now because he was stepping down and thus being a little bit more honest. Engler, however, isn\u2019t surprised that Canada did in fact know about the assasination as he says that Canada\u2019s military is \u201ctotally tied in with the U.S. military presence there.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">\u201cIn Iraq, Iraqis view Canadian military and the U.S. military as pretty interchangeable,\u201d he said.<\/p><p class=\"\">Canadian and American foreign policy have generally also been quite aligned.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cgai.ca\/does_canada_need_a_foreign_policy_review#:~:text=Canada's%20contemporary%20foreign%20policy%20has,a%20rules-based%20international%20order.&amp;text=The%20ultimate%20goal%20should%20be,aligned%20domestic%20and%20foreign%20policies.\"><span>report<\/span><\/a> by the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, Canada\u2019s foreign policy \u201chas been shaped by deep integration with, and dependence on, the United States.\u201d The US department of State also states in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/u-s-relations-with-canada\/#:~:text=U.S.-CANADA%20RELATIONS,the%20closest%20and%20most%20extensive.\"><span>bilateral relations fact sheet <\/span><\/a>that both countries are part of a number of the same international organizations, including the UN, NATO, WTO, G7, G20, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">In fact, the U.S. and Canada coordinate through the High-Level Policy Review Group, which was launched in 2009 so that both countries could \u201ccoordinate actions in response to pressing global issues\u201d and to support each other in \u201crallying international support for shared goals.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">Engler says he doesn\u2019t think that Canada would want to be directly associated with Gen. Soleimani\u2019s assassination, but believes that Canada has been quite openly aligned with the U.S. government\u2019s campaign to weaken Iran.<\/p><p class=\"\">He also says that Canada should have done better since they had advanced knowledge of the assassination.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">\u201cIf they cared about international law, they would have publicly released information and warned Iranians and said that we don\u2019t want to participate in crazy games of assassinating top officials of other countries,\u201d he said.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">Instead, foreign affairs minister, Francois-Phillippe Champagne, released a statement emphasizing the safety of Canadian troops in the region, calling for de-escalation and stating that Canada had been concerned about Gen. Soleimani's Quds Force, whose \u201caggressive actions have had a destabilizing effect in the region and beyond.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ourcommons.ca\/DocumentViewer\/en\/42-1\/nddn\/meeting-122\/evidence\"><span>2018 Parliamentary meeting<\/span><\/a>, Gen. Vance, however, admitted that the \u201cthe PMF (Popular Mobilization Forces) and Shia militia forces did help with the destruction of Desh (ISIS).\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">Iran\u2019s Parliament speaker, Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, delivered a speech on May 31, 2020 saying that Gen. Soleimani\u2019s assasination is what poses a major threat to international peace and security now.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">\u201cWhen Iran does something that is questionable there is usually a pretty aggressive denunciation from the Canadian government, but in this case (of the assasination), it was either total silence or close to silence,\u201d said Engler, commenting about Canada\u2019s \u201cmodest\u201d statement post-assassination.&nbsp;<\/p><p class=\"\">Gen. Soleimani was the commander of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps\u2019 (IRGC) Quds Force. Him and his companions, including top Iraqi official Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were assassinated in a U.S. drone strike, under the order of US President Donald Trump, when Gen. Soleimani was on an official visit to the Iraqi capital.<\/p><p class=\"\">Iran shot a barrage of missiles on U.S. military bases in Iraq on Jan. 8, 2020 as a form of revenge for assassinating their top Iranian general.<\/p><p class=\"\">According to Airforce Technology, the Al Asad air force base was the largest coalition base in western Iraq. The Pentagon announced that over 100 American soldiers suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the missile strike at the base.<\/p><p class=\"\">Canada suspended its military mission in Iraq and moved its troops to Kuwait as a protection measure at the time. Canada\u2019s NATO mission in Iraq provides training for Iraqi forces \u201cto help build more effective and sustainable Iraqi defence and security institutions.\u201d<\/p><p class=\"\">But Engler believes otherwise.<\/p><p class=\"\">\u201cSince the U.S. occupation, there have been huge amounts of resources put into trying to build up an Iraqi military force that will advance US interests in Iraq and in the region more generally.\u201d he said. \u201cThat's the objective of training militaries everywhere. Canada and the US don't train other countries\u2019 militaries just out of the goodness of their heart, [they do it] because it's useful to have armed men...that are aligned with you in different ways.\u201d<\/p><hr \/><p class=\"\"><span><strong>More Articles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanadafiles.com\/articles\/canada-knew-about-plan-to-assassinate-iranian-gen-soleimani-before-it-happened\">Articles - The Canada Files<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarus&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21246,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21245\/revisions\/21246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}