US embassy tells its citizens to leave Iraq immediately

Experts have warned that the strike on Iran’s top general puts the US and allies, including the UK, at risk.

Ian Bond, foreign policy director at the Centre for European Reform, tweeted that the airstrike was a “big escalation” by Mr Trump.

Dr Jack Watling, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told the PA news agency that the attack was “very significant” because it was a “declared assassination” outside a declared armed conflict.

But he said that Iran was not likely to want to provoke a war with the US. “The significance of this strike is that it is a declared assassination of a senior officer in another state with whom the US is not in a declared armed conflict and conducted on the territory of a third party,” he said.

“That’s a very significant development in and of itself. Ultimately Iran does not want to provoke a full-scale conflict. I would expect there will be attacks on US forces, but they will be conducted with care.”

Watling added if the UK was seen by Iran to be participating in US actions it could capture or arrest British citizens in the region. “The Iranians do not draw a direct line between the UK and US, however, if the UK is perceived to be participating in US actions then they will directly target UK interests,” he said.

He added: “The UK is not automatically the first target. Citizens in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon would certainly potentially be at risk, dual-nationalities in Iran will certainly be at risk of arrest under espionage charges.”

John Bolton said he hopes the assassination of Qassem Suleimani “is the first step to regime change in Tehran.”

The former national security adviser tweeted his congratulations to all involved in assassinating Iran’s top general, describing the strike as long in the making.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killing has said the targeted killings of Qassem Suleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis violates international human rights law.

In a Twitter thread, Agnès Callamard said the US would need to prove the individual targeted constituted an imminent threat to others. “An individual’s past involvement in ‘terrorist’ attacks is not sufficient to make his targeting for killing lawful,” she said.

On the White House statement about the airstrike, Callamard said: “The statement fails to mention the other individuals killed alongside Suleimani. Collateral? Probably. Unlawful. Absolutely.”