Iraqi prime minister says Qassem Soleimani was in Iraq to ‘discuss de-escalating tensions between Iran and Saudis’ when he was killed – and claims Trump had asked for help mediating talks after embassy attack

  • Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, told his parliament in Baghdad on Sunday that US strike on Soleimani was a ‘political assassination’  
  • Abdul Mahdi claimed that Soleimani was due to meet with him on the same day that he was killed by a US drone near the Baghdad airport early on Friday 
  • The outgoing Iraqi leader says that Soleimani was supposed to bring him Iran’s response to a Saudi proposal for de-escalating regional tensions 
  • Saudi Arabia, a regional rival, blames Iran for an attack on the kingdom’s oil facilities in September 
  • Abdul Mahdi also claims that President Trump called him and asked him to mediate talks with Iran after the US embassy in Baghdad was nearly overrun
  • Supporters of the Shiite group Kataib Hezbollah scaled the walls and barreled through security at the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday 
  • Abdul Mahdi said he personally intervened to defuse the embassy crisis and that the American president thanked him for doing so 

By ARIEL ZILBER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS and AFP

PUBLISHED: | UPDATED: 

Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander who was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad on Friday, was in Iraq to negotiate a de-escalation in tensions with Saudi Arabia, according to the Iraqi prime minister.

Adel Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, told his parliament on Sunday that President Trump called him to ask for help in mediating with Iran after the American embassy in Baghdad was attacked.

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