Strike that killed Iranian general fuels global alarm
PARIS — Global powers warned Friday that the American airstrike responsible for killing Iran’s top general made the world more dangerous and that es- calation could set the entire Mideast aflame. Some U.S. allies suggested Iran shared in the blame by provoking the attack.
The deaths of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and several associates drew immediate cries for revenge from Tehran and a chorus of appeals from other countries seeking reduced tensions between Iran and the United States. As U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called world capitals to defend the attack, diplomats tried to chart a way forward.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged leaders to “exercise maximum restraint,” stressing in a statement that “the world cannot afford another war” in the Persian Gulf.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas echoed the U.N. chief saying, “A further escalation that sets the whole region on fire needs to be prevented.“Maas also noted that the assault “followed a series of dangerous Iranian provocations.”
In the United Arab Emirates, which sits across the Gulf from Iran, the minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, called in a tweet for rational engagement and a “calm approach, free of emotion.” Qatar, which shares a massive underwater gas field with Iran, also called for restraint in a Foreign Ministry statement.
Saudi Arabia, Iran’s top regional rival, added its own voice of caution against “all acts that may lead to aggravating the situation with unbearable consequences.”
“We are waking up in a more dangerous world. Military escalation is always dangerous,” France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin, told RTL radio.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Soleimani’s killing “grossly violates international law and should be condemned.”
He told Pompeo in a phone conversation late Friday that “the move by the U.S. is fraught with severe consequences for the peace of stability in the region and doesn’t help resolve complicated problems in the Middle East,” according to a ministry statement. Lavrov also urged Washington to “stop using unlawful methods of force” in trying to achieve its foreign policy goals and instead bring “any problems to the negotiating table.”
U.S. allies Britain, Germany and Canada suggested that Iran bore some responsibility for the strike near Baghdad’s airport.
Presidents Emmanuel Macron of France and Vladimir Putin of Russia agreed to try to “prevent a new and dangerous escalation of tensions,” according to a summary issued by Macron’s office, the New York Times reported. The French president also stressed the fight against the Islamic State should be a priority, as well as efforts to get Iran to return to compliance on the 2015 nuclear agreement, from which Trump withdrew but that Russia, China and three European nations still support.