Dominic Raab 'understands the position the US were in' before killing Qasem Soleimani

The Foreign Secretary said the Iranian general was "not some victim" 
Stephanie Cockroft5 January 2020
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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said he "understands the position the US were in" before the Donald Trump-ordered killing of Iran's top general.

Although he refused to say whether Mr Trump was right to order the fatal strike, Mr Raab appeared to back the US President, saying he believed the country had "the right of self defence".

He described General Soleimani, who was killed in a strike in Iraq on Friday , as a “regional menace” and said he was "not some victim in this scenario".

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “The US will take their own operational judgment call but they’ve got the right of self defence.

“If you look at what General Soleimani was doing, he’s not some victim in this scenario.

Dominic Raab told Sky News that he "understood" the position the US were in before the killing of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani 

“He was a regional menace he was in charge of the Quds Force, the wing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard which is directing militias and proxies in the region, in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Syria which is destabilising those countries, trying to get an Iranian advantage and trying to attacking western countries that are legitimately there.

“So we understand the position the US were in and I don’t think we should be naive about the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or indeed General Soleimani.”

Mr Raab also said he had been in “constant contact” with Boris Johnson on issues of foreign policy while the Prime Minister has been on holiday with his partner Carrie Symonds.

Boris Johnson, who has been on holiday in the Caribbean, is due to return to the UK today
AP

Asked whether Mr Johnson should return from the break, Mr Raab told the programme: “The Prime Minister is in charge. In fact I’ve been in constant contact with him over the Christmas break on a whole range of foreign policy issues.

“We were in touch on Friday with relation to the situation in Iraq and the whole Government is working very closely together. I spoke to the (US) Defence Secretary last night, I talked to the (US) National Security Adviser on Friday and we’re very clear on the strategy and how we’re implementing it and he’ll be back in play tomorrow in the UK.”

He continued: “What really matters here is that the Government has got a very clear strategy and message is that we want to see de-escalation, we’re going to do everything we can to protect the UK diplomatic missions and we’re going about that business.

“I’ve been hitting the phones hard in relation to all our international partners, and as you said, I’ll be travelling and meeting with our European partners, our American friends, I’ll be in Montreal meeting my Canadian opposite number as well.

“And so the diplomatic effort goes on and indeed the Prime Minister has been engaged in that as well.”

General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike
AP

Mr Raab also confirmed that he has a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week.

He also said that the UK is looking to deescalate the tensions between Iran and the US in the Middle East, adding that there needs to be “route through this which allows Iran to come in from the international cold”.

Mr Raab refused to say if UK troops in the Middle East are in more danger, but admitted that there are “heightened tensions”.

He said: “People can rest assure that we are doing everything we can from the travel advice, through protecting our military and diplomatic missions, to keep people as safe as possible.”

Mr Raab added that he had spoken to the Iraqi prime minister and president and will be speaking to Iran’s foreign minister.

He repeated his calls for countries to "de-escalate", warning that a war was in “no one’s interests” and would only benefit the so-called Islamic State and also stressed the need to “avoid” a slide into accidental war.

“I spoke to the Iraqi prime minister just this morning, the Iraqi president last night and I will be reaching out to the foreign minister of Iran with that same message,” he added.

On the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual citizen jailed in Iran, Mr Raab said that the issue “is at the forefront of my mind” and that hardliners in Tehran “have not complied with their obligations under international law” and have “not been responsible members of the international community”.

“We have seen intransigence from the regime in relation to all of our dual nationals, I think they’ve been subject to appalling treatment, as the dual nationals of other countries have, so that is part of the nefarious behaviour we’ve seen from the hardliners in Tehran.”

The Foreign Office issued strengthened travel advice to Britons across the Middle East including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, while the Navy will begin accompanying UK-flagged ships through the key oil route of the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, military chiefs are understood to have ordered 400 soldiers training local forces in Iraq to scrap their duties to switch to "force protection" to defend themselves and British diplomats from revenge strikes.

A Government source defended Mr Johnson, saying "he's been kept fully up to date" including by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab "at all times".

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