good to talk to you thank you so much for joining us from washington let's go back to lawrence korb former u.s. assistant secretary of defense he joins us from washington on skype as well larry korb thanks for keeping with us and giving us the benefit of your insight on this developing evolving story will the reaction really only possibly be an escalation regardless of where that reaction comes from. well i think the ball right now is in iran score i think the united states having killed stalin an e.m.t. and his other top official is going to say this is what happens when you attack americans and tell them as you did here are over the last 6 couple 6 of weeks the real issue then it is what will or rand bill as some of the rather cut commentators some said well they never respond you know like a greasing cyber attack so will they do some other type of the things in the in the in the region but really the ball is in their court because i don't think the united states is now one of the away after the whole you know r.p.m. populum over the mobile or mobilization fun and a lot will depend on wh

provide the security the americans think is needed ok kate thank you very much let's bring in lawrence korb peacefully u.s. assistant secretary of defense he joins us on skype from washington as well is there a sigh of relief going on in the pentagon do we think lawrence korb no those militia protesters decided in effect to back down. very definitely because when this happened to historical examples came up in this country one is what happened in benghazi and the other is obviously when the american embassy. in iran was taken already 1979 and i think a lot of people thought this might lead to that fortunately has not at the tape hezbollah has denied all involvement does the u.s. absolutely flatly reject that well there's no doubt about the fact that the pm at the popular mobilization forces who are the iraqi military know what terri are is under the influence of iran and there's no doubt about the fact the great irony of this is that the troops that let the protesters into the green zone where they can get to the embassy who are regular iraqi forces who are not happy with the whole situatio

in iraq lawrence korb thank you very much ok at the top of the hour if you're just joining us here on al-jazeera english let's just get you right up to speed with what we know 2 leading militia commanders one iranian one iraqi have been killed in a u.s. airstrike about 1.51.6 kilometers outside the bag that international airport they were near an area where there was an antiterrorism unit an antiterrorism building was within a secure compound there the key casualty there is custom in the money killed by u.s. forces people have been demonstrating their support of what has happened the joy at what has happened inside baghdad's tahrir square let's just play you that video and give you a sense of the atmosphere right now in the iraqi capital back that. was the the. the and. it. was. and you have been watching pictures there of people in baghdad stuff or is square celebrating the killing of senior iranian commanded. by u.s. forces on stan grant here in doha of course taking over this breaking coverage live coverage of this strike by american forces inside iraq now we've had information con

ok thank you very much for speaking to us lawrence korb live there in washington d.c. . marwan bashara a senior political analysts is also with us his written extensively about the consequences of. nation an article on our website at our own 0 dot com let's start with that the big developments of the day over the last 2 hours of course as we've been saying the iraqi parliament voting to expel foreign troops u.s. troops from the country it's a big decision an important decision even though it's not a done deal yet what will it mean for you rockfest i think that's probably the most important news we've heard since the assassination of course some say the money in fact i would argue this is probably the most important news that we've had since 2003 since the u.s. invasion is it an occupied iraq because the idea of iran and iraq or listening against the united states to push the united states out of iraq. that would probably create a new center of power on to run that if of course if the iraqis decide to go along with iran that would probably be a formidable challenge for th

assistant secretary of defense he joins us on skype from washington lawrence korb welcome back good to talk to you as your reaction to this news. well there's no doubt of my mind that the u.s. has wanted to do this for wow and the fact that they did as ignited him a terrorist means legally they can they can deal with him and what has happened. in iraq over the last week this basically will get the united states back on reoffense or i don't think they wanted to attack any places where a lot of civilians could be killed because that could turn more of the population against them as we saw in the demonstrations over the weekend where they ended up killing you know some 25 rocky's and wounding another of another 50 and so i think this is a the fact of the matter is that asleep white in sort of sounds very good sources and i think if it wasn't true the pentagon would not let them run with this story why they're being silent on it i think at some point the president you may remember you know fact that he was the one who the oath to reveal that so it's going to be done by anybody i think it's

thank you for all of that very full sit in west jerusalem some analysis now from lawrence korb who spoke to us earlier he is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense and says iran's retaliation for the assassination of general sort of money actually puts president trump in a difficult position. president trump has no good options he thought that killing so long and would put a stop to this tit for tat if you will responses he does not want to get the united states and a big war with iran i may not read it much bigger for example that that iraq on the other hand he doesn't want to look weak because basically he thought that killing so all of money would put a stop to fool all of us and remember he ran as the president who is going to get us out of these wars if you count the troops he said then after the recent attacks on the us faces in the semper we have 60000 troops in the region right now and so he has no good options and it will be passe to see what he does we do remember after the iranians blew up the saudi oil fields he didn't retaliate the iranians may have taken that as a sig

will certainly have a very strong response to it is about joining us live there from tehran where lawrence korb is the former u.s. assistant secretary of defense and he joins us live via skype from washington d.c. lawrence appreciate you being with us as you have throughout this rolling coverage here on al-jazeera we continue to get more information as it comes to head it it's always good to balance this information off you but the supreme leader ali has been a is now warning of revenge there he's woods ravines what do you take from that. well he had to do something obviously has been pointed out by several of the commentators so far this was not just another military also this is probably so want to have at the end of the ayatollah the most revered person in iran and i think the democratic candidates put it very well is that ok ben if this was all right what comes next are you prepared for a long drawn out conflict with with the ram and did you think that through before you did this how would you respond if that if that happens because right now we've got 5000 troops in the region in iraq and

joining us live from tehran let's get more analysis now on this and just where this might be heading lawrence korb is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense and he joins us live via skype from washington d.c. it's good of you to be back with us again a lot's been happening away hearing various assessments here from some saying they see this is an open declaration of war to all the sign this was a targeted terrorist assassination and of course iran threatening its own retaliation what's your assessment of where things sit right now. well i think the united states' justification is going to be a that this was a preemptive attack that we kill the 2 military leaders to prevent them from attacking a war american men and women in iraq i remember we were at their legally this time this is not the invasion we left in 2011 the iraqis asked us to come box so we're there at their request and the idea that the only reigning in. lead up popular you know military forces are trying to get us out that's acting illegally where they are very legally we have only thing we've been doing it is going after isis w

lawrence korb is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense he says it's likely that the united states will see solomon his death as a protective measure. i think the united states' justification is going to be if this was a preemptive attack that we killed the 2 our military leaders that to prevent them from attacking our more american men and women in iraq and remember we're there legally this time this is not the invasion we left in 2011 iraqis asked us to come back so when they're at their request and the idea that the a rainy and lead the popular you know military forces are trying to get us out that's acting illegally where they are very legally we have only thing we've been doing is going after isis we have not attacked iran so i think united states probably has pretty good information that soul of manet was behind these attacks which of that you know there were 11 attacks one ended up you know killing an american and that he was coming into play and more attacks and so that's why you know we decided that

speaking to lawrence korb who is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense who told us that iran's retaliation for the assassination of gen so the money puts president trump in an extremely difficult position. president trump has no good options he thought that killing so long and would put a stop to this tit for tat if you will responses he does not want to get the united states and a big war with iran i may not read it much bigger for example that than iraq but on the other hand he doesn't want to look weak because basically he thought that killing so all of money would put a stop to to all all of us and remember he ran as the president who is going to get us out of these wars if you count the troops he said then after the recent attacks on the us bases in the semper we have 60000 troops in the region right now and so he has no good options and it will be fast a to see what he does we do remember after the iranians blew up the saudi oil fields he didn't retaliate the iranians may have taken that as a signal that they could yo

were an act of terrorism is motivated by a violent ideology mike hanna al-jazeera washington but lawrence korb is a senior fellow at the center for american progress and a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense joins us live now from washington d.c. mr korb welcome to the program how significant would you say these explosions are. well i think they're more symbolic than anything else because after the shooting obviously people were concerned about whether we were properly vetting all of the foreign students to come to this country so they found some things on their. e-mails and phones and stuff like that but even the attorney general said you know you can't prosecute oh wait i mean it's terror you know we've had before these killings we've had 28000 saudis come for training in this country with no problem at all in my view the real problem is our gun laws that enabled him to use a bogus hunting license to buy the to buy a gun is the only place the scrutiny on these these foreign military exchange programs is in that and the amount scrutiny that should be placed on those who are taking part

lawrence korb there in the states thank you very much just to remind us of a developing story out of iraq and we've done normal shuttle to bring you continuing coverage iran says has launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles at u.s. facilities in iraq at least 2 bases have been taught that is one in a bill and the other one is the base in the province of iran's revolutionary guard has issued a warning to u.s. allies in the region saying they'll be attacked if they countries are used to strikes against tehran. let's go to baker who is our correspondent in tehran any clarity yet as to whether this is 2 bases attack twice both has there been an attack on a 3rd base as well. at the moment we're not sure but what i can tell you it's news coming out of this news agency which has links to the revolutionary guard here now what we're hearing is that these missiles could have been launched from the west province which is the closest ring in sight to the u.s. space anan acid which is about 322 kilometers away there's a possibility that these attacks on the years base were going from the pro

its economic crisis any time soon either nick mounted thanks very much mohammed in beirut well lawrence korb is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense and he says this lightly that the united states will see so the money's death as a protective measure. i think the united states' justification is going to be that this was a preemptive attack that we killed the 2 our military leaders to prevent them from attacking us more american men and women in iraq and remember we're there legally this time this is not the invasion we left in 2011 the iraqis asked us to come back so when they're at their request and the idea that the iranian led popular you know military forces are trying to get us out that's acting illegally where they are very legally we have only thing we've been doing is going after isis we have not attacked iran so i think united states probably had pretty good information at seoul of manet was behind these attacks which of that you know there were 11 attacks one ended up you know killing an american and that he was coming into play and more attacks and so that's why you know w