The United Kingdom is urging the U.S. and Iran to avoid further violence after the U.S. assassinated a top Iranian commander Thursday.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab issued a statement Friday warning the U.S. to de-escalate, according to the BBC.
“Further conflict is in none of our interests,” Raab said.
Gen. Qassem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq at the direction of President Donald Trump, the Pentagon said in a statement Thursday night. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the strike was aimed at stopping “an imminent attack” that Soleimani was supposedly planning.
The U.S. did not warn Britain or any of its other European allies about the attack, BuzzFeed News reported. Raab did speak to Pompeo on Friday, but the time of the call is not known, the BBC reported.
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat told the BBC that the Trump administration has a “pattern” of not sharing details with its closest allies.
“I have long believed the purpose of having allies is so we can surprise our enemies, not each other,” Tugendhat told the publication.
Democratic lawmakers, who were not briefed before the attack, have argued that the White House should have sought congressional approval. The administration has defended the strike as a legitimate act of self-defense.
Trump, for his part, tweeted a blurry picture of the American flag Thursday night, following it up on Friday with tweets about how Soleimani was “hated and feared” in Iran.