According to a report by Mirror on Sunday, February 4, 2024, former US President Donald Trump has made a startling claim that Iran contacted him before launching missile strikes on Iraqi bases hosting US troops in 2020, and said that it was a sign of “respect”.
Trump, who was speaking to Fox News on Sunday, said that Iran called him to inform him that they were going to hit a certain location, but that they would intentionally miss their targets.
He said that this was in response to the US killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, who was the head of the elite Quds Force and a key figure in Iran’s regional influence.
“I had Iran in check. Do you know, we hit them very hard for something that they did, and they had to hit back, they feel they have to do that and I understand that,” Trump said.
“Do you know, they called me to tell me ‘We’re going to hit a certain location but we’re not gonna hit it, it’s gonna be outside of the perimeter’.
“They let us know. And we had 16 missiles that went off. And we knew they weren’t going to hit. And now I reveal it – so they aimed those missiles and they said ‘please don’t attack us, we’re not going to hit you.’ That was respect, we had respect.”
Trump did not provide any evidence or details to support his claim, which contradicts the official accounts of the events that took place on January 8, 2020.
According to the Pentagon, Iran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles at two Iraqi bases, Al Asad and Erbil, where US and coalition forces were stationed.
The attack was a retaliation for the US drone strike that killed Soleimani and his Iraqi ally Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020.
The US said that no American or coalition casualties were reported from the Iranian attack, but later acknowledged that more than 100 US service members suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of the blasts.
Iran said that it had inflicted heavy damage on the US bases and that it had killed 80 American soldiers, a claim that was dismissed by the US as propaganda.
The Iranian attack raised fears of a full-scale war between the US and Iran, but both sides refrained from further escalation.
Trump announced that the US would impose new sanctions on Iran, but said that he was ready to embrace peace with anyone who sought it.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the attack was a “slap in the face” for the US, but that it was not enough to avenge Soleimani’s death.
Trump also claimed that Israel was involved in the plan to assassinate Soleimani, and that he had to take the lead after Israel backed out.
He said that he had a “certain general” who agreed to carry out the operation, but did not name him.
“When we took out Soleimani, you know Israel was supposed to do it with us. Two days before the take-out they said ‘We can’t do it. We can’t do it.’ I said ‘What?’ ‘We can’t do it.’” Trump said.
“Then I had a certain general, who’s great, I said, ‘So general, do we do it ourselves?’ He said ‘We can, sir, it’s up to you.’ I said ‘We’ll do it.’
“But Israel was a part of it. You know, Bibi was a big part of it. And we had everything planned, everything. Because what he did was terrible. What he did to us was terrible. Killed so many of our soldiers. Killed so many people.”
Trump’s assertion that Israel was a part of the plot to kill Soleimani is also unsubstantiated and contradicted by Israeli officials, who have denied any involvement or prior knowledge of the US strike.
Israel has long considered Soleimani as a threat and a mastermind of Iran’s proxy wars in the region, but has also been wary of provoking a direct confrontation with Iran.
Trump, who is running for the president again in 2024, has been vocal in criticizing the Biden administration’s foreign policy, especially its efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump withdrew from in 2018.
Trump has accused Biden of being weak and naive in dealing with Iran, and has claimed that he had Iran on the verge of collapse before he left office.
However, Trump’s claims have been challenged by experts and officials, who have argued that Trump’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran failed to achieve its objectives, and instead pushed Iran to resume its nuclear activities, increase its regional aggression, and harden its stance against negotiations.
