Daily Analysis of 'The Hindu' - 4th January, 2020 | Additional Study Material for UPSC PDF Download

 Page 1


• Despatch
• Détente
• Throw down the gauntlet
• Convulsed
• Riposte 
Page 2


• Despatch
• Détente
• Throw down the gauntlet
• Convulsed
• Riposte 
Page 3


• Despatch
• Détente
• Throw down the gauntlet
• Convulsed
• Riposte 
Page 4


• Despatch
• Détente
• Throw down the gauntlet
• Convulsed
• Riposte 
An act of war
In an election year, an impeached American President is provoking a war with Iran
• Friday’s assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods
Force for over two decades, in Baghdad, is a reckless and unilateral act of provocation by the 
U.S. that could trigger another full-scale war in West Asia. The strike against Mr. Soleimani and 
several Iraqi Shia militia members when they were leaving the airport, was apparently in retaliation 
for the storming of the American Embassy in Baghdad by protesters earlier this week. Mr. 
Soleimani, who had celebrity status among Iran’s military leaders, was highly popular among the 
hardliners. He was reportedly very close to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who 
once called him a “living martyr of the revolution”.
• Mr. Soleimani was also the main architect of Iran’s recent foreign operations, mainly in Syria and 
Iraq, which were crucial in saving the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and defeating the Islamic 
State (IS) in both countries. It was under his leadership that Iran founded and trained Shia 
militias and despatched them to the battlefields there. The militias fought alongside Kurdish 
paramilitaries and the Iraqi Army, with U.S. air support, against the IS in northern Iraq, from Amirli to 
Mosul. Ironically, the soldier who helped the U.S. and the Iraqi government defeat the IS has 
been assassinated inside Iraq by the Americans.
Page 5


• Despatch
• Détente
• Throw down the gauntlet
• Convulsed
• Riposte 
An act of war
In an election year, an impeached American President is provoking a war with Iran
• Friday’s assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Qods
Force for over two decades, in Baghdad, is a reckless and unilateral act of provocation by the 
U.S. that could trigger another full-scale war in West Asia. The strike against Mr. Soleimani and 
several Iraqi Shia militia members when they were leaving the airport, was apparently in retaliation 
for the storming of the American Embassy in Baghdad by protesters earlier this week. Mr. 
Soleimani, who had celebrity status among Iran’s military leaders, was highly popular among the 
hardliners. He was reportedly very close to the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who 
once called him a “living martyr of the revolution”.
• Mr. Soleimani was also the main architect of Iran’s recent foreign operations, mainly in Syria and 
Iraq, which were crucial in saving the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and defeating the Islamic 
State (IS) in both countries. It was under his leadership that Iran founded and trained Shia 
militias and despatched them to the battlefields there. The militias fought alongside Kurdish 
paramilitaries and the Iraqi Army, with U.S. air support, against the IS in northern Iraq, from Amirli to 
Mosul. Ironically, the soldier who helped the U.S. and the Iraqi government defeat the IS has 
been assassinated inside Iraq by the Americans.
• This was a crisis foretold by many, and U.S. President Donald Trump is 
squarely responsible for where U.S.-Iran ties stand today. He single-
handedly destroyed the détente between the two nations established by the 
2015 Iran nuclear deal by unilaterally pulling the U.S. out of the agreement in 
2018 and reimposing sanctions on Iran. Now, with the assassination, Mr. 
Trump has escalated the crisis to the levels not seen in the past; not even 
during the siege in 1979 of the American Embassy in Tehran by the 
revolutionaries. 
• It might help an impeached President in an election year to divert attention 
from his domestic woes and mobilize political support, but for a region 
already struggling to cope with multiple conflicts and external 
interventions, it could be dangerously consequential. The attack has 
already killed off even the possibility of renegotiating the nuclear deal. Iran 
might see this as an act of war like any sovereign country would do. A full-
scale war would be totally different from the wars the U.S. has fought in 
West Asia. It could trigger multiple attacks across the region, destabilizing it 
further, cause heavy casualties and help the jihadist al-Qaeda and the IS 
regroup and re-emerge. It is unfortunate that the U.S., which is struggling to 
get out of Afghanistan after 18 years of war, which destroyed the Iraqi 
state 17 years ago, turning parts of the country into fertile ground for 
jihadists, is triggering another conflict in the Muslim world.