a number of people a protesting against iran involvement so it's not just a simple as saying one person is killed here this is what it means for these 2 countries it taps into a mosaic of issues in the region that is so complex and in twine doesn't know in fact i'm glad you brought up the issue of iraq because i think that's what's being neglected in this entire conversation of what's happening between the united states and iran but iran for iraq for years and years has chafed under the influence of iran and some would say it's chafed under the influence of the united states as well both the political elite inside of iraq and the religious elite inside of iraq have always said let us maintain our own sovereignty in so many words if you all have. a fight don't do it here and iraq we are a relatively young democracy we need to develop we need to. increase our

economy our infrastructure we need to rid corruption out of our government which is all the things that the protesters are protesting for but if iraq is truly going to be what the americans have wanted to be since 2003 a strong stable and independent country then we can't turn this into a battleground between the united states and iran and that's why the greatest fear . as we say in sports or take this off the field and work it out somewhere else because i think right now iraq is that a very very tenuous position and what we're doing right now between the united states and iran especially with this talk of revenge and we will go after you wherever you are it's simply destabilizing a country such as destabilizing the country of iraq which is only going to add the instability throughout the region much of it we do appreciate you being with us today and providing your analysis we're going to stay in the united states and.

he's in washington d.c. where he's been following the rules of the reaction both on twitter and also officially by the pentagon and the white house hearing the seymour anything at all from donald trump when he may actually speak anything from the white house and he will confirmation about the details of what's taking place each of the. well 1st on the president to donald trump it's a little after 12 30 in the morning here on friday morning we have not heard from president donald trump except for one tweet a couple hours ago where he just tweeted the american flag but beyond that no on camera statement or any news from the white house on when we will directly hear from the president again it's after midnight here so presumably there won't be anything until friday morning local time but we're not sure on that but i was just

handed a significant new statement that i need to bring to you right now this is a statement from nancy pelosi the speaker of the house of representatives of the united states congress who just issued a statement and i just got it and i'm going to read the entire thing to you because it's quite significant it's 3 paragraphs long here it is american leaders highest priority is to protect american lives and interests but we cannot put the lives of american service members diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions tonight's airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence america and the world cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return and listen to this the statement goes on the administration has conducted tonights air strikes in iraq targeting high level iranian military officials and killing iranian cuts force commander

qassam solo money without an american without an authorization for use of military force f. against iran further this action was taken without the consultation of congress nancy pelosi statement concludes with the following the full congress must be immediately briefed on the syria situation and on the next steps under consider. aeration by the administration including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region period that is a full statement from house speaker nancy pelosi a significant statement there because she's really. upset quite frankly is what you hear there that congress was not consulted about this and echoing some of the statements we've heard from others such as joe biden bernie sanders and elizabeth warren just to name a few that they're very concerned that this escalates the situation to

a level where it could now put u.s. personnel in the region in further risk so that from nancy pelosi just in here to us in the washington office more than just upset as you say significantly accusing the president of presidential overreach in this action saw that there might be more development the. bill is on the joining us live there from washington d.c. there was a lot to discuss in that comment from nancy pelosi hillary mann leverett is a former white house national security official and she says the u.s. has completely underestimated iran and its military technicalities have a list of what she had to cite. the fact that the united states designated the money on its own unilaterally as a foreign terrorist does not give the united states in law or in practice even the right to kill him it in u.s.

law gives the united states the right to seize his assets but not to kill him and i think here again we're looking at u.s. government under president trump and unfortunately even under just under president trump prior presidents have been under this dissolution as well that somehow we can control the situation in and with iran that has just been flagrantly not true for 40 years we have underestimated that country it's an enormous country 80000000 people sophisticated educated it has a very significant conventional military force it has a significant asymmetric military force it knows every inch of where the americans are and have been around the middle east and has done so 2 in a deliberate way i think since president bush 1st designated the entire country of iran as part of the axis of evil back in 2002 so my concern is the united states is yet again underestimating the islamic republic of iran and and what it can do the

prior killings of others designated as terrorists and as vile as their their their acts have been did not give the united states in those cases either launched to cripple them there just was no popular u.s. response to it because those figures are so reviled and they were so reviled around the world i think what you've done with some soul in miami though is of an order of magnitude different this is a person who was widely respected inside iran as the as one of the key architects for defending that country and also was someone who had wide contacts throughout the region so as the united states goes on this path of killing someone . we don't like the idea that iran is not going to respond is wishful thinking that will make the debacle of of invading iraq look like a walk in the park i do not think the president really understands what he's gotten

the united states into going up against iran i would argue that going to war with iran will be the most significant adversary that the united states has encountered since world war 2 they are certainly the most capable adversary that we have encountered since world war 2 and the legality of how people may argue what the united states in this case is going to look like a minor footnote in history well let's discuss that final line about the tensile capacity of iran and the threat that it poses to the u.s. now with mr a physician who is the editor in chief of the fox news agency and he joins us from tehran it was really interesting guests there were saying about the capacity of iran and that in iran the u.s. the u.s. faces its most significant adversary since world war 2 can you speak to the capacity of iran to if indeed this this is some predicting to carry out the courthouse for avenge that the supreme leader of iran is promising.

well law iran has vast options. it's no secret that iran has powerful allies all across the region from east to west in the middle east for sure or the iraqis would definitely go for a real taking revenge for abu mohammed this man the deputy commander of iraq's popular forces has to shabby for sure that that's the revenge that has already been apparently announced by the iraqi forces popular forces but when it comes to iran iran has so many other options available iran has a robust myside power i don't remember quite well that marshall xeni the former centcom commander in doha. stressed in 2013 on the eve of the geneva

convention treaty with iran to nuclear deal with iran he said even those fools that would of thought that would think that the iraqis would you know meyer the u.s. army as a liberating army. in the iraq invasion in 2003 for toppling saddam hussein even those full now in washington would never say similar things about iran why because iran has a robust military power especially in an area of the metal in this reason it has you know a very highly advanced ballastic massages that could hit targets immobilized targets that are very sophisticated technology in the world that has been owned only by 2 nations one is iran also iran has very skillful mine laying you know skills and capacity that that was mentioned by marshals in any

again and also much as in the set that whenever u.s. . warships are moving across the region in the persian gulf they are very much concerned to avoid any kind of tension with iran because god knows what would happen if war arises you know as a top military official and centcom commander who said he was responsible for the war ascent cunt commander would be responsible for war and because of too many points that they do not know about iran's military power about the level the intensity of iran 2nd strike about the targets that iran might attack the type of iran's attack that type of iranian missile systems for defense and for our fans he said that the united states army has too many unknown facts and it would be mad for a centcom commander to go into

a war with iran now irrespective of all this confession it's now a donald trump has embarked on an act the war and it has pushed the region the entire region into a new chapter the stuff of thank you i'm a stuff from there the editor in chief of you can see we're going to go to another guest in the united states in just a minute i do want to bring you some information that we're getting to had of course is this story continues to develop we get different from me in a different times but this from israel keep in mind that iran has also accused israel of complicity in this strike today in iraq that has killed custom so the money this significant military leader from iran israel in response to these actions today has stepped up the level of alert on its borders now it's stepping up the level of alert on its borders that's the word

we're getting from israel at the moment of course iran accusing israel of complicity in this strike in iraq and i will continue to monitor that situation. out of israel i want to bring back in mark kimmitt who is the former assistant secretary of state for political military affairs under president george w. bush was also deputy director of plans and strategies centcom and he joins us now from washington d.c. good to have you back with us in the the time since we last spoke nancy pelosi has now put out a statement in the united states and it was it was quite a significant statement these and the language i think needs some sort of analysis or response that we get from you but basically sgt accusing donald trump of a disproportionate provocative action there was no authorization of military force and it happened without congress' approval what's your response to that was this something that was required of donald trump in this case has he stepped the

bounds of these on presidential authority. well he certainly hasn't overstepped the bounds have his presidential authority whether it's under the authority for the use of military force from 2002 or simply his responsibility as a president to prevent american soldiers and american interests and demanded action or killed so and and commander in chief thank you so i think we've got to recognize that. it is a political year it is an election year and we're going to hear quite a few comments coming out from both sides of the aisle on the opposing side of the aisle they're probably going to say. caught some sort of money was a bad person but we should have done it a better way in terms of the actual decision you know it could well have been done better going to what we call the gang of 8 who are typically notified before a significant military operation for consultations but whether there was

a better way to do this or not on the question that was brought up does he have the authority to do this he certainly does have the authority to do it could he have done it a different way yes that does raise a question i think this is also implicit in what nancy pelosi is saying is that it now puts american lives at risk is there a greater risk to american laws to the americans in the middle east region to die as a result of this act. and that's calculation i think the president secretary pompei o and secretary esper had to think through before they conduct this obviously there have been strikes against small numbers of americans recently in the middle east by the popular mobilization forces armed trained and equipped by qassam sort of money in the could force so the question that they probably had to ponder or certainly had to ponder was will this action in the long run save lives or take lives

and i think in their calculation i certainly wasn't in that decision loop so i don't know how they thought about it but i think for the long term they said this is probably going to save lives in the long run you would prevent profits of this called the sized but you've been privy to simulate called the citations what effect is that need to be worked through what how do you factor in the risks and consequences of an action like these you can't fool see every possibility but you can reasonably assess what he run koodoo a modern iran is potential potentially eyeball to do. no that's absolutely right and that's exactly what planners do they do this continually consistently and then when asked to brief the plan they lay it all out for the senior leaders and then the president has to make the decision and that's why the job of president is often called the loneliest job in the world because at the end of the day everybody is

going to look to him to make a decision and he's got to calculate all those factors that you mentioned. and nobody will agree 100 percent among themselves in the national security council but at the end of the day the president has got to do what he thinks is best for the country for the soldiers. and for all 'd those other factors that he's considering when he has to make this type of decision bucket but again thank you so much for being generous with the top today and giving you start right now says here on al-jazeera we want to go back to smuggle folks who you know who joins us live from baghdad there's a couple of things to try to work through he is a lot of it immediately just what's the response they pick of the white thing up to this news. well the response they needed a response from iraq streets was one of celebration but of course there's also a lot of concern about the potential consequences of this strike and we have yet to

hear from the iraqi government itself we understand there are high level security meetings ongoing following that strike that killed. hundreds and it remains to be seen how exactly the government will react but if we look back and look at what their reactions were after the u.s. air strikes on sunday against hezbollah brigade positions here in iraq the government strongly condemned those strikes they said that they were a violation of iraqi sovereignty they called upon the u.s. to seize any kind of unilateral action and that's exactly what this was from what are from our understanding right now neither the iraqi government nor the intelligence services were informed about this strike or consulted about this strike so we're likely to see a very strong condemnation of this action coming out of the government we're also waiting for a grand ayatollah ali sistani to speak to deliver his speech as

a part of his regular friday sermon and of course he is the supreme religious authority in country he's someone who has 5 also called for an end of iranian influence in iraq but he has also condemned u.s. intervention here so many will be also looking to him. as to what he will say about how this crisis should be managed there is such a complicated situation inside iraq at the moment the political vacuum that we're seeing there right now and the level of complexity there is some analysis that the united states resolves to be just a year and with the united states remains in iraq. remains committed to iraq as a couple of things you've touched on one is the question of iraqi sovereignty the americans there at the invitation of the iraqis whether they will rescind that but also on the street the protesters who are anti iran and what iran's influence out

there not necessarily pro america the other. no they're not they're against any kind of foreign influence in iraq and it just happens that rain and influence has been much more pronounced recently and that is why their anger was more directed at iran but many people still look to the u.s. as an occupying force as a forest that. put in place the current system the political system that basically has failed the iraqis they they are also objecting any kind of u.s. intervention in iraq so there is there is a general opposition to words foreign interference but it has been more directed at their iranian side recently now many people also right now just fear the consequences of a potential escalation many fear that iraq could become the main theater of war if there is an actual confrontation between the u.s.

and iran so far from what we have seen here on iraqi soil it has basically been tit for tat with the retaliations we've seen the iranian popular mobilization of forces conduct rocket attacks on bases where u.s. personnel are based and then we've seen the u.s. respond to one of these attacks which killed a u.s. contractor again attacking positions of the hezbollah brigades which is one of the groups under the popular mobilization of forces now the problem here is that these forces the american forces and the popular mobilization of forces there in such close proximity to one another for a war to begin there is no need to deploy troops there already right here we have already over 5000 american troops that are in iraq and the iranian backed popular mobilization of forces they count tens of thousands of people so we have already heard the leaders of the popular mobilization for to say that there will be

a funeral procession on saturday and of course the last time there was a funeral procession we saw. an actual attack near the u.s. embassy so we will we will be watching whether or not this funeral procession will actually lead to further escalation and violence here you're talking about the popular mobilization forces we should remember of course while so much of the focus on iran and tell some sort of money that someone else was also killed today. mohan to tell me more about him his role within the popular mobilization forces why he would have been a target from the u.s. today as well. well he was the 2nd in charge of the popular mobilization of forces he's also somebody who was the leader of the hezbollah brigades previously disses one of the groups that was targeted in the u.s. strike on sunday and he's basically somebody who has been seen as a key leading role but also somebody of course who is very close to iran and who is

seen as somebody who is basically the embodiment of also iranian influence here he also took part in that funeral procession on on tuesday basically when the p.m.s. marched on to the u.s. embassy i was walking with those crowds and i actually saw him with my own eyes walking along. who is another key leader of the popular mobilization of forces so he's a very influential figure he's somebody who had a lot of clout over the government somebody who really exercised a lot of military but also political leadership and that's why here for part of the he would have also been targeted and that airstrike some other thank you smoke a fortune joining us live there from baghdad. they're going to have a juneau of course we're going to so many of our reporters who are out the region in beirut and joins us now live from there. from beirut the view from there the

perspective regionally as someone who covers this region and of course iran's influence is felt throughout the region in various ways how will this be assists and how will what the likely response is more broadly geopolitically throughout the region be to this. well saying we should stress 1st and foremost there has been no official response from hezbollah at this point of course hezbollah is closely affiliated with and backed by eat on we have seen an article that part obituary of clusium today money in part editorial and this was released in the daily newspaper that is the pro hezbollah newspaper here in lebanon the headline said that it's war and it went on to say that whoever took this decision the decision meaning the decision to kill them so they money is either

stupid and does not know what he got himself into or he's opening a door for war that was already prepared for this article also goes on to say that this what they call the axis of power meaning syria iraq lebanon palestine and iran those groups that fought israel and america in the past that they will have to retaliate and what we are looking for throughout the course of the day stan of course is reaction from hezbollah reaction from hezbollah as leader house and. obviously we expect that they will be issuing some kind of a statement the article that i mentioned earlier also made clear that at this hour they say that no hezbollah officials were killed in that air raid the reason that they're saying that is that there were unconfirmed reports circulating throughout lebanese media and also regional media that perhaps some hezbollah lebanese

hezbollah officials may have been with them for their money in baghdad when that attack took place but the left bottom newspaper again a pro has daily in lebanon is saying that no officials were killed in the tack all that being said even if hezbollah officials were not killed the fact is you are going to see a reaction from his boat you know and so the money he ran. in lebanon he's a very important figure in this country so we expect to hear more about it in the hours to come stan we'll continue to come back to you as we follow developments there inside by route which is a significant part of the story as well bob thank you. in just a wake of course with things seeing how things have developed here as collided between the u.s. and iranian backed groups in iraq there was a rocket attack struck an iraqi military base killing an american contractor and 2 days later the u.s. launched air strikes against a pro group the hizbollah grades 27 of its fighters were killed that enraged

members and supporters of the pro iranian paramilitary groups in iraq who stormed the american embassy compound in baghdad now that's the background to what we've seen play out here today just to barry's joining us from tehran and with those events of recent weeks in mind what we've seen today here this is being interpreted in iran as an act of aggression and an escalation and there is a warning of revenge isn't there. yes certainly a very stern warnings not only from various high ranking officials ranging from the forum in a search of the fence minister but from the highest official in the islamic republic that is the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei who is the commander in chief of the country's armed forces he issued a statement a short while ago praising. life and his work saying that he was marked heard that for the cause of islam and that his blood will not be has not been spilled

invades and those responsible for its will be held accountable there will be revenge and that is his words his message identity will not die with his death it will be carried on by the followers of by some sort of money very strong words from the supreme leader we've also seen on his instagram account he has already posted a picture of himself with some solo money embracing each other at an event commemorating the death of $1.00 of the prophet one of the mom's brother in the past in the capital so this is a huge loss not only for the 86000000 iranians in the country but also for the supreme leader himself who has known this man since the formation of these public since the revolution of one $0.10 all the money fought during the iran iraq war between $18988.00 and then since then he quickly rose up the ranks of the revolutionary guards and we believe some point in the early ninety's ninety's he

was appointed to the head of the courts force tasked with dealing with iran's strategic interest and out.