tis a martyr's funeral and nobody does
martyrdom quite like the iranians Qasem
Soleimani x' coffin arrived in the city
of Havas this morning mourned by
hundreds of thousands and revered like a
saint
the feeling of persecution lies at the
heart of Shia Islam and so the story
general who fought proxy wars for his
country is just the latest victim a few
months ago the generals regime was
shooting protesters now the nation is
rallying around both flag and faith Fort
Bragg North Carolina over six thousand
miles away and the first of three and a
half thousand troops are being deployed
from America's Rapid Reaction Force the
81st airborne to somewhere in the middle
east their commander-in-chief ramping up
the tension in the hope of preventing a
war let this serve as a warning mr.
Trump tweeted overnight that if Iran
strikes any Americans or American assets
we have targeted 52 Iranian sites some
at a very high level and important to
Iran and the Iranian culture and those
targets will be hit very fast and very
hard those tweets followed US
intelligence that Iranian ballistic
missiles kept in underground bunkers had
been moved to a heightened state of
alert as for the US strike on general
Soleimani while Pentagon officials have
briefed that this was just one of a menu
of options and that they were astonished
when the president took it up
mr. Trump had seen iran-backed militants
attacking the US Embassy in Baghdad and
though no Americans were hurt the
president decided to have the general
assassinated it may be that there's a
little noise here in the internment that
the Iranians make the choice to respond
I hope that they don't and I am
confident that the decision we make tit
made to take down this terrorist the
designated terrorists who had inflicted
so much harm over such an extended
period was the right course of action to
reduce risk to America but at what cost
tonight most Shia MPs inner arcs
parliament approved a bill to expel
american alleged coalition troops
the bill was non-binding there were acts
Shia Prime Minister recommended it in
southern Beirut today the dead generals
Shia allies the men of Hezbollah or the
party of God chanted that they were
ready to sacrifice themselves for the
Shia cause as their spiritual leader
Sheikh nasrallah told them that American
soldiers would return home in coffins
that military bases and warships were
now fair targets mr. Trump has upset a
hornet's nest of Shia rage the whether
the rhetoric of revenge matches up to
reality is anyone's guess are you
predicting a war in the Middle East now
[Music]
we're not predicting a war soon he said
but if there will be a war we are ready
this was a criminal assassination and we
will respond general Soleimani is
believed to have visited his forces here
[Music]
[Applause]
anyway ayatollah khamenei back in tehran
would have needed to approve any
operation first still iran backed
militants in Iraq have put out this
propaganda video saying they can target
US troops at the Embassy when the order
is given that may be bluster mr. Trump
is gambling that it is UK forces and
commercial interests are also at risk
the Ministry of Defence is sending two
warships the Montrose and Defender back
on patrol alongside British shipping in
the Straits of Hormuz the foreign
secretary today confirmed he received no
warning the UK's closest ally would kill
an Iranian general though Dominic rob a
former government lawyer defended the
strike the operational assessment has
been done by the Americans is that there
is a right of self-defense there and and
as I sit tightly circumscribed or under
international law well it is but if
you're attacked and there's no doubt
look it was general Soleimani 'he's job
description to engage proxies and
militias across not just Iraq but the
whole region I think the important thing
now is to de-escalate the tensions to
try and restore some stability and make
sure whilst we're containing the
nefarious actions Iran is undoubtedly
taking that that door to a diplomatic
route out from the international cold is
therefore on but it's ultimately got to
be for the regime and the leadership in
Tehran to make that choice that door is
slamming shut in
ron's Parliament today they chanted
death to America the Islamic Revolution
has rediscovered its voice as it always
does when it's under attack this is not
just a funeral worthy of an Ayatollah
it's an outpouring of emotion which may
well solidify the hardliners grip on
power
and if solemn Annie's death leads to
American troops being forced out of Iraq
they will give him what he always wanted
Jonathan Rugman Channel 4 News
Beirut well the Foreign Office has
strengthened its travel advice for Iran
and Iraq since the assassination of
general Soleimani only essential travel
to the countries is advised but hundreds
of people are still in there the UK has
formed the troops of two bases in
Baghdad and one and Erbil security at
these locations has been tightened since
Friday's killing 1,400 military and
civilian personnel are currently in Iraq
supporting operations to counter the
threat from Isis a hundred Special
Forces troops are deployed in eastern
Syria the UK also has six Royal Navy
ships in the Gulf War joining me now is
dr. Lena Khateeb from Chatham House
thanks for coming on the program how
vulnerable are these British targets
let's call them that how vulnerable are
they in the Middle East we're only as
vulnerable as any participant in the
international coalition against Isis is
because we're not alone out there we're
there as part of a mission to counter
this terrorist organization and
obviously we're not alone which means
we're not going to be singled out as a
target however with this very explicit
threat issued by Iranian our partners
that American soldiers might be targeted
of course any partner of the United
States needs to be vigilant because we
are still officially the little safe
normally well I mean right now I think
Iranian sites are very much squarely on
the united states rather than the UK it
is very much about Donald Trump it's
really a standoff between the Ayatollah
in Iran and Donald Trump himself in a
way
it's become almost personal I don't
think that Iran is interested in
declaring war against the West or
targeting Western targets
indiscriminately I think they've been
very specific in saying us only when you
look at what Dominique robbed the
Foreign Secretary had to say today when
he consider the fact that the Prime
Minister hasn't said a single word about
this and is only now coming back from
holiday does that indicate a certain
lack of comfort shall we say in the
British position regarding this I think
it indicates a desire to in a way stay
out of it because this is very much
about us versus Iran the UK does not
need to involve itself more than
necessary but we've already been tipped
off by Mike Pompeo in fact all Europeans
that I think he also mentioned London as
not responding sufficiently to this we
know that the Rob is going over on
Thursday to see the Secretary of State
we have now responded but I don't think
it merits more than this because this is
not really our fight this is now really
between the United States and Iran and I
think the US will of course try to put
pressure on its allies as we have heard
but I don't think we necessarily need to
heed this call to do much more than we
already are doing now let's talk about
Iraq briefly the assembly today voted to
get rid of the five thousand US troops
will they actually not have to leave
they don't yet have to leave because for
that to happen there needs to be a law
and the current cabinet in Iraq is only
a caretaker cabinet because officially
the Prime Minister resigned which means
it cannot set laws so it's a matter of
time but I think eventually it's going
to be very difficult for the u.s. to
justify staying and in 20 seconds is
there any danger of renewed civil war
inside Iraq as a result of all this the
problem is that today a lot of Sunni MPs
did not vote for this law which means
there's already a division happening in
Iraq regarding what to do