MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. The US, if Donald Trump is elected president of the country, may carry out a false-flag operation and blame it on Iran to create a pretext for war with the country, military expert Alexey Leonkov told TASS.

Earlier, Politico reported, citing sources familiar with intelligence data, that Iran was allegedly "actively planning" an assassination attempt on US Republican presidential candidate Trump. According to the newspaper, US intelligence believes that the Iranian threat to the former US leader and other senior officials in his administration is greater than ever now.

"If Trump wins office, he will face a divided society. On the one hand, he will need to unite the nation, and on the other hand - he’ll need to maintain the US’ weakening grip on global hegemony. It cannot carry out an operation against the Houthis and so on. This is due to internal strife. The policies of the Democrats and Republicans have divided American society. The divisions run so deep that the country is on the verge of a civil war, so it needs something to bring the nation back together," Leonkov said.

In his opinion, if after the possible election of Trump as president of the United States "it is possible to carry out a provocation against a symbolic target, things may turn around for the United States." "In order for Trump to do something big, he may be given such carte blanche. America can go all out for the sake of internal stability, to stay in the forefront of world history, that is, to go all-in. [There are] external circumstances that are now coming with inexorable force: the growing power of the BRICS countries, the Global South and so on, the displacement of America and the EU from all continents, from Africa and Central Asia. If everything collapses with Israel, then [the US] will also be pushed out of the Middle East. Besides, there is a delayed agreement on the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq," the military expert emphasized.

Presumed target of attack

Leonkov suggested that a US Navy aircraft carrier could be targeted, much like in Pearl Harbor, "which dragged the US into a world war." "The loss of an aircraft carrier would be a national tragedy. They are a means of projecting power, a symbol of US strength. This would be carried out by proxy forces supposedly linked to Iran, with intelligence claims to support it - but of course, no concrete evidence would be presented," the analyst opined.

According to him, the USS Abraham Lincoln Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, which is currently stationed in the Middle East, would be an ideal target, and the strike could be considered an "attack on democracy." The expert believes the potential attack would have additional meaning given that it is named after former US President Abraham Lincoln, a beloved figure in American history and defender of democracy. "It does not matter if it is sunk or badly damaged, the main thing is its symbolism and that it is close to Iran," the expert concluded.