Washington: Attacks on US forces have quadrupled since Soleimani’s assassination.
A State Department spokesman told a news conference Thursday evening that attacks on US forces had quadrupled since leaving nuclear agreement declaring the Revolutionary Guards terrorists and assassinating Sardar Soleimani.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday evening that after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran, as well as after the announcement of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist and the assassination of Sardar Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force. , Iran has expanded its nuclear program, and attacks on US facilities and partners in the region have worsened considerably.
“There have been no significant attacks on US forces and US diplomatic facilities in Iraq since 2012-2018,” he told a State Department news conference. “This changed in 2018, and between 2019 and 2020, the number of attacks by Iranian-backed groups increased to 400 percent, which took place after leaving Borjam and placing the IRGC on the sanctions list and killing Soleimani.”
“Attempts to suppress Iranian-backed forces based on the strategy we have inherited have not worked,” Price added.
“We want to see the strategy work and be effective,” he said. “We still believe that returning to Barjam is the right solution.”
A State Department spokesman added: “Few issues remain until the return to finalization of the agreement. “It is now up to Iran to decide.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a recent interview: “The issue of removing the list of natural and legal persons from the red list and from the list of sanctions and unilateral measures imposed by the Americans against Iran is one of the serious topics of our recent talks in Vienna.
