Persian people

The legacy of instability of 2019 was violently confirmed as the new decade began.

US President Donald Trump poureed fuel into an already flammable Middle East by ordering the murder in Baghdad of the prominent Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, an emblematic figure in Tehran with broad involvement in crucial fronts in Iraq and the Arab world in general.

NATO ambassadors will hold an extraordinary meeting at the headquarters in Brussels, according to BGNES. The news comes after an escalation of tensions in the Middle East over the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.

""The North Atlantic Council will address the situation in the region," a NATO official said.

Turkey's foreign minister on Jan. 5 spoke with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his Qatari counterpart over the phone, diplomatic sources said late on Jan. 5

Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in separate phone conversations with Guterres and Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, discussed the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone airstrike in Iraq.

Tens of thousands of Iranians thronged the streets of Tehran on Jan. 6 for the funeral of Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a U.S. airstrike last week and his daughter said his death would bring a "dark day" for the United States.

Iraq's parliament called on Jan. 5 for U.S. and other foreign troops to leave as a backlash grows against the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general, and President Donald Trump doubled down on threats to target Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates.   

The United States will not dare to hit 52 targets in Iran, as US President Donald Trump threatened earlier, said Iranian Armed Forces Commander Abdolrahim Mousavi, RIA Novosti reported.

"In the course of a possible conflict in the future, in which I doubt they will have the courage to strike, it will become clear what those numbers are - 5 and 2," Mousavi added.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke with his U.S. counterpart over the phone on Jan. 4, according to diplomatic sources.

Çavuşoğlu and Mike Pompeo discussed the situation in Iraq and Iran, as well as bilateral issues.

In an announcement on Friday, Greece's main opposition SYRIZA called the assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, killed in Baghdad by US military forces, "a dangerous act that further intensifies a climate of instability in Iraq and the wider region of the Middle East."

Four CV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor planes and two C-130 Hercules military cargo planes landed at the military base at Souda in Crete on Thursday, Kathimerini understands.
According to sources, the six aircraft, which flew to Greece from the RAF Mildenhall US air base in England, will be deployed in potential operations to evacuate American nationals or officers from Iraq's wider region.

Thousands more U.S. troops were ordered to the Middle East on Jan. 3 after the United States assassinated Iran's military mastermind and Tehran promised "severe revenge."    

President Donald Trump said top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was "terminated" when he was on the verge of attacking U.S. diplomats but he insisted that Washington is not seeking to topple Iran's government.