Sahar Amarir

My God you are right. Me, being “safe in Canada”. What gives me the right to opine about Suleimani. I should check my privilege. Only thing is, do you know why Im in Canada right now...? BECAUSE I WAS A REFUGEE FROM THE FUCKING SHIT SULEIMANI DID TO SYRIA!!!!!!https://twitter.com/lacelioness/status/1213509295968530432…

The Syrian regime used chlorine gas on multiple occasions, destroyed hospitals & flattened entire neighborhoods with barrel bombs and burned humans alive with incendiary munition. Pro-Iranian militias led the ground offensive. More on this: https://www.publications.atlanticcouncil.org/breakingaleppo/ 

I also spoke to an activist in Aleppo city who survived months of siege by Syrian regime & pro-Iranian militias, and then an unprecedented ferocious military campaign to capture the city, overseen by Soleimani, among other commanders

So I reached out to friends, one after another, telling them not to sleep until they hear the news. This is such joyous news. Soleimani & his militias did not spare us, in killing, shelling, displacing us and then occupying our lands and taking over our belongings."

"Our area was subjected to shelling & occupation from the Hezbollah militia, the arm of Iran in Syria. When I heard about the death of Soleimani, it was about 2 AM. I was about to go to sleep>>

90% of the town has been demolished. The regime allowed only state employees to return to Wadi Barada, as they are seen as more loyal. Some of them took photos of the destruction & sent to activists, but stopped when regime began searching phones on checkpoints in/out of the town

My friend was badly injured in Jan 2017, during Hezbollah's assault on his town & needs to undergo several operations still. He was forcibly displaced to Idlib & now lives as a refugee in a free country, yet he is still afraid of speaking against Soleimani while using his name

I also spoke to an activist from Wadi Barada, which also survived 2 years of siege & then a fierce military assault with major Hezbollah participation. I can not mention his name because his relative, who remained in Wadi Barada, was arrested by the regime for talking to him.

"I hoped to see him behind bars after a fair trial in an international court. Such a trial would have allayed the pain of those who were displaced, suffered and lost loved-ones because of Soleimani, Iran, Russian & all the forces that intervened in Syria." - @almaleh_amjad

"I used to hope to be able to avenge the death of all those killed by Soleimani and others, but the Syrian revolution thought us to use our brain and not be guided by emotions." - @almaleh_amjad

>> I remembered the 235 civilians who were killed by shelling and by mines". Hezbollah placed mines around the town of Madaya and nearby Bloudan and Zabadani, besieged as well, to prevent escape & smuggling of basic necessities

What do Soleimani's victims think about his death? I spoke to @almaleh_amjad, who survived 2 years of siege under pro-regime forces in his hometown of Madaya. The siege of the town turned particularly deadly when Lebanese Hezbollah replaced the Syrian regime in besieging the town

Syrians: Soleimani was directly responsible for the deaths and starvation of thousands in our country Iraqis: Militias linked to Soleimani have kidnapped us, tortured us, murdered us and lodged tear gas canisters in our skulls S*na S*eed: imperialists

Since people are asking for follow recommendations, you can't do much better than @RashaAlAqeedi @RazanSpeaks @danaelkurd @Elizrael @Qunfuz1 @kshaheen @KenanRahmani @Linashamy @hxhassan

I'm glad that my timeline is full of people from the region itself and their opinions on it and on the killing of Qassem Soleimani. Iranians, Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Yemenis. Westerners' views are not the centre of the universe, no matter what the newspapers of record think.

Trump is not a hero, Suleimani is not a hero. Long live anti-imperialism against Iran, against the USA, against Russia, against Saudi Arabia. Long live all progressive forces in the region. Down with the anti-imperialism of idiots! #كلن_يعني_كلن #سليماني

Have you checked on the lives lost while he was still running business?

While you're here, please look "Iraqi protesters shot with teargas canisters". It's very gore, but way overdue you catch up with what's been going on in #Iraq when your president isn't involved.

#Iraq is a trending topic in the US. Now that it's finally caught your attention please know that since October 1st over 500 unarmed protesters have been brutally killed by government security forces following the advice of Suleimani, the man many of you are mourning to own Trump

Shout out to all the Americans who woke up yesterday, heard Suleimani's name for the first time and are already giving lectures to Iranians... on Iran's histroy

Short thread on domestic political implications of Soleimani strike: 1) Trump's base loves a successful hit-job vs a bad guy & they don't care (nor perhaps does he) if the Middle East goes up in flames as a result. It's totally on brand Trump =>faux toughness+opposite of Obama

Well most have been dealing with the mass & sweeping chaos across the region for almost a decade now - to them, the region was already falling apart with no real end in sight to the violence.https://twitter.com/shadihamid/status/1213512889308516352…

10. The Bush administration used to talk about "moral clarity." The left should be more concerned with *moral consistency,* but our obsession with America's original sin and sometimes even its supposedly inherent badness distorts our not only analysis but our moral assessments

9. Not everything is about us. And not everything is primarily a question of whether the US is, or isn't, using military force. Not everything is about repeating Iraq. Context matters, and understanding what's actually going on in the Middle East matters

3. Some of the discourse around Trump bringing us to war has been myopic and ahistorical. Assad and Iran have been waging war on Syrians for quite some time. The war, in short, has already been happening—and it has cost half a million Syrians their lives. Let's not forget that

“Soleimani fought Isis” Yeah, so did Al-Qaida That’s how fundamentally flawed this assadist/anti-imperialist apologia is for a mass murderer

Ce que la Syrie m’a appris : ne jamais croire que les personnes qui disent n’importe quoi en RI arrêteront un jour de dire n’importe quoi. Ce n’est pas une question de connaissance(s) mais d’idéologie et d’éthique. On ne gagne jamais de boussole éthique en route.

QS was a man who played a critical role in transforming the popular, early resistance in Syria into one where the Assad regime were up against a patchwork of incoherent Islamist militias - before methodically defeating them. In a Syrian context, this was the enemy Iran needed.

An Iranian general responsible for heinous crimes across MENA/the world in the pursuit of one state's agenda was dusted in a foreign country and people online think Iran is going to enter into a conventional war against the biggest military power on earth. The hysteria. [1/22]

I don't want to get into this nonsense too much, but if people had followed events over the last decade instead of flail around wildly about a World War 3 after a few Google searches, they would see this event - while unprecedented - isn't as surprising given the circumstances:

Qassem Soleimani was imperialism by definition This evil pseudo-leftist cult of “anti-imperialists” needs to rebrand themselves They oppose western/american imperialism, anything else is fine

Here is Syria today, like most days for the last decade, being murdered by Russia, Iran and Assad. Up to a million dead, 13 million displaced. Westerners, meanwhile, worry that 'war may break out'. Such a total disengagement with reality.https://twitter.com/EmadAlbasiri/status/1213475983438831616…