Emily Thornberry warns Qasem Soleimani killing is "another major step towards war"

4 January 2020, 11:38

The Shadow Foreign Secretary also thinks there should be an emergency meeting of the Security Council imminently.

On the US killing of Qasem Soleimani, Thornberry said: "I don't shed any tears for Solemaini but I think that this is a ratcheting up of tension and it's a very long and another step towards war."

Matt Frei asked if this was an act of war.

She replied: "I think that it pushed us towards that."

Referring to President Trump, She added: "He says that he's doing this in order to stop a war in order and not to start one and yet the evidence seems to be exactly the opposite."

Thornberry said: "Frankly, have we not learned any lessons for all our wars in the Middle East? We had the Chilcot report that made it quite clear that we should not be involved in military action without thinking through the consequences and without having an idea of what was going to happen next.

"I fear that we are just repeating the same pattern of behaviour and what we should be doing as a country is standing up to Donald Trump, making it clear that we disagree."

She added: "I do not understand why Britain hasn't called for an emergency meeting at the Security Council.

"We are on the Security Council. If you look back to the way that United Nations played such a central part 17 years ago in the build up to the war in Iraq and was quite clear and his views about the war, why is it doing nothing now?

"The Security Council is the most important and most senior body within the UN. We have a place on that. We're not there to be a Donald Trump mini-me or always agree with what they say. We should be taking a stand."

She later restated that this is a "another major step towards war" and called Trump's rhetoric "belligerent" and "reckless".