Soleimani killing 'counterintuitive for US'

According to Nicola Pedde, director of the Rome and Brussels based IGS-Institute for Global Studies think tank, Soleimani’s killing is a counterintuitive move for the United States.

“Soleimani is the opposite of the western stereotype you find portrayed in the US and Israel,” he tells Middle East Eye.

“He was a nationalist and a strategist, not a fanatic. The only person on the ground who had the capacity to understand US thinking and undertake informal talks.”

The general, Pedde says, represented a rationalist ideology that is prevalent in the first generation of Iranian leaders.

“The second generation in the Revolutionary Guard are much more concerned with pursuing their economic interests. Soleimani was the last barrier holding back that faction, and his death has exposed Supreme Leader Ali Khameini,” he says.

“That is why Soleimani was so popular with the youth, he was seen as someone who wasn’t corrupt, a real nationalist.”