United States says that it is "prepared" for a possible attack by Iran on the anniversary of Soleimani's death

The year 2020 was already pointing to ways from the outset, as a few days after the beginning of the new year and still with a hangover, the shocking news of the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, by the United States broke.

On 3 January that year the escalation of tension between the United States and Iran returned to an all-time high. US President Donald Trump authorised the attack that ended the lives of two pro-Iranian leaders, Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, vice-president of the Iraqi Shia militia People's Mobilisation Forces (PMS).

Soleimani was a highly prominent figure in the Persian Armed Forces. In 1979 he joined the Revolutionary Guard and since 1998 was commander of the Quds Forces and responsible for military operations outside Tehran. He was considered the mastermind of Iran's terrorist activity outside its borders. He was also regarded by Western leaders as Iran's link to other Shiite militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine and was singled out as a key figure in Iran's regional influence and in the increase in the specific weight of the ayatollahs' regime in conflictive countries in the area such as Iraq and Syria.

The attack, orchestrated from Washington, made use of missiles directed by unmanned aircraft that hit a retinue of vehicles. In this way the US army killed Soleimani and Al-Muhandis in the vicinity of Baghdad's international airport.

This event triggered a wave of rejection among the population, which called for revenge, and its Iranian leader, Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, promised that reprisals would be taken against the culprits. Despite these threats, Iran has not managed to inflict any damage on the United States of the calibre of this attack. 

Even so, as the anniversary of Soleimani's death approaches, the United States has already warned that it is prepared to react if it is attacked. The head of the US forces in the Middle East, General Frank McKenzie, who is on a tour of the region, has made statements in which he states that "we are ready for our defence and that of our friends and allies in the region, and we are ready to react if necessary".

During his tour the commander visited Baghdad (Iraq), where he met the head of the anti-Jihadist coalition forces, US General Paul Calvert, and the Iraqi chief of staff, General Abdul Amir Yarallah. He has also travelled to Syria to meet the forces deployed at the al-Tanf base in the south.

Iran has threatened the United States on many occasions but they have never been effective on a real scale, yet a date is approaching that is a great blow to Iran's pride. It is risky to say that there will be reprisals for the anniversary of Soleimani's death, but it is not unlikely.

This same month of December Iran also threatened Israel, which it blamed for the murder of Mohsen Fajrizadeh, one of the "fathers" of the Iranian nuclear programme. The Arab country has many open fronts and many promised "vendettas".

It also has little time to carry out this threat, as the Trump Administration's hours at the White House are numbered and Joe Biden is Iran's best chance of getting rid of all the economic sanctions. So once Biden enters the White House, an attack on the United States could be in Iran's interest.