Dueling Middle East lobbyists rush to praise Trump for Soleimani killing
Foreign agents seeking to sway the president on behalf of both warring factions in Libya are among the cheer squad.
Iranian-American activist Saghar Erica Kasraie lit up right-wing social media this week with a YouTube video applauding President Donald Trump for taking out Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.
Unmentioned in her praise: Kasraie is a registered foreign agent for Libyan strongman Khalifa Hifter’s self-proclaimed Libyan National Army — one of several lobbyists for various Middle Eastern clients who’ve cheered the Soleimani strike in recent days.
Not to be outdone, lobbyists for the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA), which Hifter is trying to topple, came out with their own press release today praising the strike. They argue that just as Soleimani used foreign proxies to sow chaos across the Middle East, Hifter is doing the same in North Africa.
“The GNA is resisting Hifter‘s renegade force, which has advanced fighters from Russia, Iran’s longtime partner in undermining US interests in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere,” said Brad Gerstman, the founding partner of GNA lobby shop Gotham Government Relations. “A win for Hifter is a win for Russia and Iran, and posthumously for Soleimani,” he said, accusing Russia and Iran of seeking “permanent instability in Libya.”
