General of the elite Iranian special unit “Al-Quds” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qasem Suleimani , killed in early January as a result of a US strike, personally persuaded the Russian president Vladimir Putin to start a military operation in Syria in 2015. His role in the decision of the Russian president was revealed by the leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, reports Telegram -channel Military Observer citing Iranian agency Fars .
According to Nasrallah, Suleimani visited Moscow in the summer of 2015 in the hope of getting the Russian authorities to intervene in the situation in Syria. At the same time, the Iranian general had all the operational information on the situation in Syria and a map.
The next time Suleimani arrived in Moscow in December of the same year, three months after the official start of the Russian military operation in Syria. It is noted that then he held several meetings with representatives of Russian Defense Ministry and personally with Putin .
Suleimani died in Iraqi Baghdad on January 3, 2020, in a missile attack from the United States. Together with the general, several officers accompanying him and the deputy commander of the Iraqi Shiite militia, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, were killed. In response, Tehran fired dozens of missiles at American targets in Iraq on the night of January 8. The operation that took place was named “Martyr of Suleimani”. The United States declared no casualties and minimal damage to military bases.
Pentagon stated that the order to assassinate Soleimani was personally given by the president Donald Trump . This idea to the American leader could have been submitted by the Secretary of State Michael Pompeo . The United States believed that the general was involved in the attacks on the coalition bases and the American embassy in Baghdad.
Russia has been conducting a military operation in Syria since September 2015. The goal of the campaign was to support the government army and the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the fight against terrorists, including with the “Islamic State” ( ISIS , banned in Russia).