Former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif recalled the details of the retaliation taken by his country against the United States after its killing of Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani near Baghdad airport in January 2020.
Iran retaliated to the killing by launching an attack against American forces at Iraq’s Ain al-Asad base.
Zarif recalled the developments in his latest book, a memoir of the time he served as foreign minister.
Ten days after the publication of the book, social media circulated a photo of one of the pages of the memoir that detailed the moment when Zarif was informed of the Ain al-Asad attack.
He described the situation at the Iranian Supreme National Security Council after the killing of Soleimani as the “most bitter experience” during his time as FM.
The last decision he oversaw after Soleimani’s killing on January 3 was that there was no urgency to carry out revenge. The most efficient way to seek revenge was to follow Lebanese Hezbollah’s example of depleting the other side before launching an attack.
On January 8, he received a telephone call from his deputy Abbas Araji to inform him of the attack on Ain al-Asad.
Araji was awakened by the national security council at 3 am to request that he relay a message through the Swiss ambassador to the US. Switzerland has been representing US interests in Iran since Washington and Tehran cut ties shortly after the 1979 revolution.
The Americans actually found out about the attack from then Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdulmahdi.
Then Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Zarif were informed after Americans.
“It seems Abdulmahdi was informed on Tuesday night. Contacting the Iraqi PM was the right thing, but questions were asked about why they didn’t inform the president and foreign minister,” wrote Zarif.
Reuters reported at the time that the PM had received an oral message from Iran that the retaliation to Soleiman’s killing will begin at a later time and that it would target locations where American forces were deployed.
Zarif revealed that he and his team were preparing messages to the security council and other parties to explain the Ain al-Asad attack before he learned of the downing of the Ukrainian plane soon after its takeoff from Tehran.
The Kyiv-bound Ukraine International Airlines plane was accidentally shot down shortly after takeoff from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on January 8, 2020
The plane was downed when Iran’s air defenses had been on high alert hours after its armed forces fired more than 20 ballistic missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq.
This is not the first time Zarif has spoken of how he was not informed of the developments that took place that January 8.
In a voice recording leaked in March 2021, Zarif could be heard saying that officials knew about the circumstances of the downing soon after it happened, but they had concealed the information from him.
On February 5, former secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani dismissed claims by former US President Donald Trump that he had received an Iranian message before the attack.
During an election campaign, Trump said the Iranians informed him that they would hit a military base with 18 missiles.
Shamkhani said there were no contacts between the Iranians and Americans before the attack on Ain al-Asad.
