Iran news – live: Trump claims Qassem Soleimani was ‘plotting to kill’ Americans, and urges US citizens to leave Iraq after killing of Iran’s top general
US president and his top diplomat provide no detail for claim, while Tehran and allies vow revenge
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump and his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, have claimed Qassem Soleimani posed an “imminent” threat to American lives that justified the airstrike that killed him in Baghdad last night.
The US president said the Iranian general was “plotting to kill” US citizens, but neither he nor Mr Pompeo provided additional details to support the claim. Americans in Iraq have been urged to leave immediately in the wake of the killing.
Soleimani, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force and Tehran’s most senior military commander in Iraq, was killed near Baghdad Airport alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a high-ranking commander in Iraq’s militia.
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The US president pivots seamlessly from high-stakes foreign policy to promoting a book by a conservative Christian author and Fox News contributor.
Emmanuel Macron has held talks with Vladimir Putin on the situation in Iraq.
In a statement, the French president has said Iran should refrain from any provocation.
Two and half years ago claims began to surface in the security world that highly placed Saudi officials, close to the royal family, were trying to take out contracts to assassinate enemies of the Kingdom with Qassem Soleimani as the prime target, writes Kim Sengupta.
The proposition was said to have been made at a meeting in Riyadh in March 2017. Among those present was major general Ahmed Al-Assiri, the deputy head of Al-Mukhabarat Al-A’amah, the intelligence service, who was later tried and acquitted by a Saudi court for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Saudi authorities refused to comment on the alleged meeting as did lawyers for two businessmen supposedly present, George Nader, a Lebanese-American and Joel Zamel, an Israeli with close connections to his country’s intelligence apparatus. According to security and diplomatic sources the two men refused to get involved.
Donald Trump has gone on a retweet spree. First, Dinesh D'Souza, a conservative commentator who had made a disparaging remark about Chuck Schumer - one of the president's Democratic nemeses.
Then, Mike Pompeo, who claimed Iraqis were "dancing in the street for freedom" after Qassem Soleimani was killed.
Then, a Wall Street Journal columnist who praised William Barr, Mr Trump's current attorney general, and implicitly mocked Greta Thunberg, Time's person of the year, with whom Mr Trump has feuded online.
Then, a podcaster who mocked intelligence analysts who had talked up Iran's power.
And, finally, the official White House announcement of Soleimani's death.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, has issued a statement calling on the president to brief Congress on how he plans to deal with the fallout from his killing of Qassem Soleimani.
She said: “American leaders’ highest priority is to protect American lives and interests. But we cannot put the lives of American servicemembers, diplomats and others further at risk by engaging in provocative and disproportionate actions. Tonight’s airstrike risks provoking further dangerous escalation of violence. America – and the world – cannot afford to have tensions escalate to the point of no return.
“The Administration has conducted tonight’s strikes in Iraq targeting high-level Iranian military officials and killing Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani without an Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iran. Further, this action was taken without the consultation of the Congress.
“The full Congress must be immediately briefed on this serious situation and on the next steps under consideration by the Administration, including the significant escalation of the deployment of additional troops to the region.”
Donald Trump is now retweeting messages supportive of his actions in ordering the death of Qassem Soleimani.
Gulf Air has cancelled all flights to and from Baghdad and Najaf in Iraq amid ongoing security concerns.
The flight operator joins others including Royal Jordanian Airlines to have ruled out flights into the region.
Iran has summoned a Swiss Envoy for the second time today to hand him Tehran's answer to the US - using the state as a proxy to disseminate its message.
It follows comments from Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif that the US "bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism".
Iran's deputy foreign minister has indirectly reacted on Twitter to U.S. President Donald Trump's tweet about the Iranian military commander killed by a U.S. airstrike.
Abbas Araghchi said there are Americans and Europeans who owe their lives to Qassem Soleimani because of his efforts to defeat the Islamic State group.
Araghchi tweeted that the "American people would one day know how many lives General Soleimani has saved - including Americans and Europeans - by defeating Daesh (ISIS) in the Middle East."
Trump tweeted earlier on that Soleimani "should have been taken out many years ago". The president said the head of Iran's elite Quds Force - listed by the US as a proscribed terror group - was "plotting to kill" many Americans when he died in the targeted strike.
Iran's Araghchi suggested the plans in Washington were political, saying in his tweet that "Such reelection (mis)calculations will certainly lead to disaster."
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