Intel: CENTCOM commander says Soleimani strike won’t deter Iran forever

The top commander of US military forces in the Middle East says he believes the assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani has only temporarily deterred Iran from pursuing its goal of pushing US troops out of the region.

“I draw no confidence from periods of quiet,” the head of the US Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, said in an interview with Bloomberg published today. “That's when I actually begin to look very hard at what the Iranians might be up to because I think they have long-term goals to eject us,” he said.

Why it matters: The US military carried out an order by President Donald Trump to kill Soleimani after suspected Iran-linked militias in Iraq killed an American contractor in a rocket barrage. The continuing rocket attacks followed sabotage of oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman and cruise missile and drone strikes on two of Saudi Arabia’s largest oil processing facilities on Sept. 14. The United Nations has said projectiles recovered at the site were of Iranian origin.

McKenzie has said the killing of Soleimani has restored a “rough deterrence” against Iran ­— that is, Washington believes Tehran is unlikely to risk another significant attack on US forces or allies for now, but that Iran’s proxy forces in the region are harder to control.