TEHRAN (FNA)- The Tel Aviv regime has helped Washington stage an operation that led to the assassination of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Qods Force Commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, US media reported quoting sources.
NBC News cited unnamed sources as saying that Israel added to the early January’s military operation by providing the Americans with key intelligence details on the matter.

The details helped confirm and verify intelligence from informants at a Syrian airport that General Soleimani had been on a nighttime flight from Damascus to Baghdad, info which was used to tip off the CIA.

The New York Times, in turn, reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo ahead of Soleimani’s killing, and the Tel Aviv regime likely became Washington’s only ally which was in the know about the issue.

Unnamed US officials have also told The New York Times that the United States considered targeting General Soleimani since at least July 2018.

According to the newspaper, officials considered assassinating the senior Iranian general outside Iran, in Syria or Iraq, deeming that an attack against him in Iran itself would be too difficult to accomplish.

The US effort reportedly included cultivating agents to report on Soleimani’s movements across the region.

Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton reportedly formally presented the option of assassinating General Soleimani in May, after the US deployment of a carrier strike group to the Middle East.

Netanyahu has called the US assassination of the top commander a justified act of self-defense and said Trump should be credited for “acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively”. Later, Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the primer warned his cabinet not to get too involved in the US assassination of General Soleimani, lest Tel Aviv gets dragged into the escalating conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Source:
https://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13981022000860