Boris Johnson has backed America’s assassination of a top Iranian general, saying the military chief was “a threat to all our interests”.
Finally breaking his silence days after General Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad, the Prime Minister said “we will not lament his death”.
Calls for retaliation or reprisals will only lead to more violence, he said, adding that he has spoken to US President Donald Trump and other world leaders amid the spiralling crisis.
Mr Johnson called for de-escalation from all sides and revealed that steps have been taken to increase the security of UK personnel and interests in the Middle East.
The Prime Minister, who had been on a 10-day luxury holiday in Mustique with his girlfriend Carrie Symonds, had faced criticism over his silence on the Iran-US conflict and for failing to cut short his trip and return to Downing Street.
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He was due back in No 10 on Sunday after celebrating the New Year in a £20,000 villa on the private island in the Caribbean. Ministers are due to meet on Monday to discuss the crisis after the PM is briefed by security officials.
They are said to be furious that No 10 allowed a “political vacuum” to open up while Mr Johnson was on holiday.
In a statement released on Sunday evening, the PM did not condemn Mr Trump’s actions, saying: “Today I have spoken with President Macron, President Trump and Chancellor Merkel, and will be speaking with other leaders in the coming days.
“General Qassem Soleimani posed a threat to all our interests and was responsible for a pattern of disruptive, destabilising behaviour in the region.
“Given the leading role he has played in actions that have led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and western personnel, we will not lament his death.
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“It is clear however that all calls for retaliation or reprisals will simply lead to more violence in the region and they are in no-one’s interest.
“We are in close contact with all sides to encourage de-escalation.
“I will be speaking to other leaders and our Iraqi friends to support peace and stability.”
Downing Street insiders insisted that his remarks were not intended as a criticism of Mr Trump’s actions.
Earlier, outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Boris Johnson should have immediately cut short his holiday to deal with an issue that could have grave consequences for the UK and the world.”
Acting Lib Dem co-leader Sir Ed Davey said Mr Johnson’s “silence on Trump’s dangerous assassination in Iraq is deafening”.
Ms Thornberry accused the PM of having “other preoccupations” as he was “sunning himself” while Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill chaired Cobra meetings.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. who will update Parliament on Tuesday, defended Mr Johnson, telling Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday he had been in “constant contact” with the Prime Minister, who remained “in charge” throughout his Caribbean holiday during the crisis.
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The UK’s National Security Council, chaired by Mr Johnson, will meet this week.
Meanwhile, he Government has urged Iraq to allow UK soldiers to continue the fight there against the so-called Islamic State terror group, after its parliament called for the expulsion of foreign troops.
The bill, passed on Sunday in the latest reprisal following the US killing of Iran’s top military general on Friday, was not legally binding.
Some 400 UK troops are stationed in Iraq in the fight against IS, while the US has 5,200, prompting fears of a withdrawal that could cripple the battle against the terror group.
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Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani told state television the Iraqi parliament’s vote means the US military presence in Iraq is considered an occupation.
The Foreign Office has strengthened travel advice to Britons across the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
The Navy was to begin accompanying UK-flagged ships through the key oil route of the Strait of Hormuz.
General Soleimani was killed in a strike on his convoy at Baghdad airport, sending the Iran-US conflict into unprecedented territory.
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Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was also killed in Friday’s strike.
Tehran threatened to attack the White House and warned it would roll back its on international nuclear commitments and there would be no limits on research or uranium enrichment, stoking fears it could soon have a nuclear weapon.
It also lambasted Trump after the US president threatened to hit 52 Iranian sites, including targets important to Iranian culture, if Tehran attacks Americans or US assets in retaliation for Soleimani’s death.
“Like ISIS, Like Hitler, Like Genghis! They all hate cultures. Trump is a terrorist in a suit. He will learn history very soon that NOBODY can defeat ‘the Great Iranian Nation & Culture’,” Information and Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi wrote on Twitter.
Iranian MP Abolfazl Aboutorabi said: “We can attack the White House itself, we can respond to them on the American soil. We have the power, and God willing we will respond in an appropriate time.”
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In remarks to Fox News on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Mr Trump had not threatened to target Iranian cultural sites.
General Soleimani masterminded Iran’s clandestine and military operations abroad as head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, creating an arc of Shi’ite power with the help of proxy militias confronting the regional might of the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Hundreds of thousands of mourners joined funeral processions for General Soleimani through the streets of two major Iranian cities, with some chanting “Death to America”.
In London, more than 100 people protested against the killing of the commander, the second most powerful man in Iran, outside the US embassy.
Mr Pompeo rejected suggestions that the US intelligence that led to the strike on the general was thin.
“The intelligence assessment made clear that no action – allowing Soleimani to continue his plotting and his planning, his terror campaign – created more risk than taking the action that we took last week,” he said on ABC’s This Week show.
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Democratic critics of the Republican president have said Mr Trump was reckless in authorising the strike.
Heightened fears of war drove Gulf stocks sharply lower on Sunday.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Iran’s foreign minister by phone to work to de-escalate the situation and invited him to Brussels to discuss ways of preserving world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
It was Mr Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the deal in 2018 and reimposition of sanctions on Iran that touched off a new spiral of tensions after a brief thaw following the accord.
On Sunday, Iran further distanced itself from the deal, saying it will continue to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog but will respect no limits to its uranium enrichment work.
This meant “there will be no limitations in enrichment capacity, level of enrichment and research and development and … it will be based on Iran’s technical needs,” state TV said, quoting a government statement.
It said the roll-back of its nuclear commitments could be reversed if the United States lifted sanctions on Tehran.
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned that American bases, warships and soldiers would all “pay the price” for the drone strike.
“When the coffins of American soldiers and officers begin to be transported to the United States, Trump and his administration will realise that they have really lost the region,” he said.
Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif accused Mr Trump of having “committed grave breaches” of international law with the killing, while the information minister described him as a “terrorist in a suit”.
The Iranian authorities have placed an $80million bounty on Mr Trump’s head in the wake of General Soleimani’s assasination, according to reports.
Official state broadcasters said one US dollar would be tabled for every Iranian in the country.
“Iran has 80m inhabitants. Based on the Iranian population, we want to raise $80million (£61million) which is a reward for those who get close to the head of President Trump,” it was announced.
Earlier, Mr Raab declined to say that Mr Trump was right to order the assassination – but told the BBC he was “sympathetic” to the US position and that Iran was “nefarious” and General Soleimani a “regional menace”.
He added: “The US will take their own operational judgment call but they’ve got the right of self defence.”
But he warned that a war was in “no one’s interests” and would only benefit the so-called Islamic State.
The Foreign Secretary will meet Mr Pompeo in Washington on Thursday. He has already spoken to the Iraqi PM and President, with a call also planned to Mr Zarif.
