CENTCOM commander Kenneth “Frank” Mackenzie said on March 15 that an Iranian missile attacked near the US Consulate in Iraq on the weekend aimed at other targets.
Mackenzie’s statement, made at a Senate hearing on CENTCOM, upheld the State Department’s assessment of an Iranian missile attack in Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region, at midnight on March 12.His remarks also occur when U.S. and Iranian officials are trying to massage. Final details Of a nuclear treaty.
Twelve ballistic missiles were launched into Erbil, injuring two civilians, according to Kurdish officials.As Videos distributed onlineNational security experts said the violent barrage of missiles indicates that the missiles were launched by nation-state actors rather than terrorists.
Just one day later, on March 13, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed responsibility for the attack. This was said to be in retaliation for Israel’s recent crimes, including an airstrike in which two Revolutionary Guard officers were killed in Syria last week.
However, the Fars News Agency, managed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, seemed to suggest that the attack was related to the January 2020 airstrikes ordered by then-President Donald Trump.
“The missile attacked the” Israel-America “base at 01:20 local time. “That’s not a coincidence,” IRGC-QF Chief Solei Mani was killed in #Iraq during 7Jan 20-01: 20 Iraq time, “the news agency said. I wrote in a Twitter post.
State Department while blaming Iran’s strike March 13 said There are no signs that they were targeting US facilities.
“The strike was an exorbitant breach of Iraq’s sovereignty. No U.S. facilities were damaged or personnel were injured, and there are no signs that the attack was directed at the U.S.,” said Ned, a State Department spokesman. Price states. “Iran must immediately stop the attack, respect Iraq’s sovereignty and stop interfering with Iraq’s internal affairs.”
Mackenzie, who will retire from the US military at the end of the month, made a similar assessment at a committee hearing on March 15.
“I don’t think Iran actually targeted us,” he told a member of the committee. “We believe they were aiming for other goals.”
Mackenzie was put under further pressure on this issue. He said he would provide more information in a private briefing set later that day, but reiterated that Iran has not targeted American facilities in recent missile attacks.
“They weren’t targeting us,” he said. “I’m sure it.”
Meanwhile, Russia’s demands for sanctions targeting Moscow have reportedly stagnated negotiations with Iran following continued invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergeĭ Viklov talked about the negotiations on March 5, citing “Avalanche of aggressive sanctions that the West has begun to spit out” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow Times..
Josep Borrell Fontes, Head of Foreign Policy for the European Union, said in a Twitter post on March 11, although negotiations were suspended, “the final text is basically ready. , At the table. ” He added that the authorities will continue to work to “overcome the current situation and conclude an agreement.”
A member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said March 14 The negotiations will continue “until our legal and logical requirements are met and a strong agreement is reached.”
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Kensilva covers the national security issues of The Epoch Times. His reporting career also includes cybersecurity, crime and offshore finance. This includes three years as a journalist in the British Virgin Islands and two years in the Cayman Islands. Contact him at [email protected]