Trump rivals condemn attack on Iranian target as ‘hugely escalatory’
Assassination of Qassem Soleimani divides US political parties
Joe Biden said Donald Trump had thrown “dynamite into a tinderbox” with his assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian military commander.
Mr Biden, who is leading the Democratic race to challenge Mr Trump’s in the November presidential election, criticised the air strike as a “hugely escalatory move in an already dangerous region”. He added that the US could be “on the brink of a major conflict across the Middle East”.
“I hope the administration has thought through the second and third-order consequences of the path they have chosen. But I fear this administration has not demonstrated at any turn the discipline or long-term vision necessary — and the stakes could not be higher,” he added.
The former vice-president’s warning came amid a flurry of statements from congressional Republicans celebrating the air strike in Baghdad against Soleimani — and just days after Mr Trump blamed Tehran for an attack on the US embassy in the Iraqi capital.
“The president acted decisively to protect our country, diplomats, service members and citizens,” said Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House foreign affairs committee. “For months, President Trump exercised restraint in the face of repeated hostility. Iran’s aggression continued to escalate.”
Reactions to the strike reflected divided party lines as the US heads into the 2020 election and in the wake of the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in December.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, lamented that Mr Trump had failed to consult Congress on the action and also suggested that the president had acted recklessly. “Tonight’s air strike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America — and the world — cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return,” she said.
Iranian officials were quick to condemn the US actions as incendiary and warn of regional destabilisation. Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, warned that “the US bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism” in a post on Twitter.
Mr Zarif was among those who also pointed out that Soleimani was one of the regional masterminds of the years-long fight against Isis, whose defeat ranked as one of the big foreign policy goals espoused by Mr Trump. The US effort has awkwardly relied on unacknowledged Iranian actions against the group.
“Had it not been for Qassem Soleimani, Baghdad would have fallen to Isis,” said Trita Parsi, who has written several books on Iran and is executive vice-president at the Quincy Institute, a think-tank. “He is seen in the region as the person who took the most action against Isis, no questions asked.”
Iranian state television ran footage of Soleimani’s activities in Iraq and Syria and said that neither would have kept hold of their territories without his command.
Although Tehran vowed “tough retaliation”, analysts said its leaders would probably refrain from any immediate military response and instead use the events as a rallying point for national unity, which has taken a dent in the wake of a series of riots against the regime. A Revolutionary Guard statement said it would let people know about the date of the funeral. Tehran announced three days of mourning.
Mr Zarif is due to visit the US, where Iran has an embassy to the UN in New York, next week but has yet to be issued with a visa, according to Iranian officials.
The tensions on Capitol Hill over Mr Trump’s approach to Iran — which were already apparent over his move to abandon the nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama — boiled over again on Thursday as lawmakers reacted to the killing.
After Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut on the foreign relations committee, asked whether Mr Trump had “knowingly” set off a “potential massive regional war”, Ben Sasse, the Republican senator from Nebraska, retorted on Twitter that these concerns were “drunk partisanship”.
“Gen Soleimani has killed hundreds and hundreds of Americans, and was actively plotting more. This commander-in-chief — any C-in-C — has an obligation to defend America by killing this bastard,” Mr Sasse wrote.