LABOUR’S John McDonnell has demanded Boris Johnson condemn Donald Trump’s drone strike on an Iranian military chief.
The Shadow Chancellor – who has said he will quit after their disastrous election result – attended a Stop the War protest against the death of controversial general Qasem Soleimani yesterday.
Controversial general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike
Addressing a crowd of 150 outside No10 Downing Street with Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, he warned that the UK could be sliding towards a war with Iran and warned that the killing “would set the Middle East and the globe alight yet again”.
“Weve been here before, we were here 17 years ago,” he warned in reference to the 2003 Iraq conflict.
“And theres one lesson that came from those events, is that violence begets violence.”
He claimed it was easy to slip into a conflict thanks to the US President’s “aggressive imperialism” and urged protesters to take direct action on the streets with more demonstrations.
The leftie MP for Hayes demanded that Boris Johnson – who has yet to comment on the crisis – slam the US for the attack.
He stormed: “Its not good enough for the UK government just to appeal for a de-escalation, what we expect the UK government to do is to come out in total and outright condemnation of this act of violence.
“We will not tolerate us being dragged yet again into this type of aggressive military action which puts us all at risk.”
Jeremy Corbyn today said the killing was “lawless” and “reckless” – and branded the Foreign Secretary “dangerous”.
And he too demanded the UK oppose the US’ actions.
General Soleimani was killed alongside five others in a US drone strike in Baghdad last week.
He is thought to have been behind the deaths of thousands as part of Iran’s murderous regime, and was head of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force – an elite unite deemed to be a terrorist organisation by the US.
The Pentagon suspects he has been behind the deaths of thousands of Americans.
President Donald Trump called for the attack on Soleimani after claims that he was plotting against American diplomats in Iraq.
And he’s insisted he launched the attack to try and stop a future war.
He said: “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.”
Tensions have escalated and US is now wary of retaliatory strikes.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today appealed for a “de-escalation” of the conflict and warned that only terrorists would gain from an all-out conflict.
He refused to state whether the Government considered the attack – which happened on Iraqi soil – was legal or illegal.
