'World Is Safer Place As Soleimani No Longer Walks On Planet': Mike Pompeo

Amid escalating tensions between American and Iran after the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said the world is a safer place as ‘Soleimani no longer walks on the planet’. Pompeo said President Trump made the right decision to order drone strike on Soleimani and prevented future plans that he had against the United States. Pompeo’s statement comes after Trump tweeted, “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”

US Secy of State Mike Pompeo: It’s very clear the world’s a safer place. Qassem Soleimani no longer walks the planet. US President Donald Trump made right decision to stop Soleimani from terror campaign that he’d been engaged in against America&prevented future plans that he had pic.twitter.com/c15vNWkIdw

— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2020

Trump tweeted after Iran vowed to pull out of the nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and five UNSC members plus Germany. Iran’s announcement of pulling out of the nuclear deal came amid escalating tensions in the Gulf region after the killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

Trump had warned Iran that the US has identified 52 possible targets in the country and will hit it harder than ever before if Tehran, which has vowed “severe revenge”, carries out any attack against America to avenge the killing of top military commander Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani, 62, the head of Iran’s elite al-Quds force and architect of its regional security apparatus, was killed when a US drone fired missiles into a convoy that was leaving the Baghdad International Airport early on Friday. The strike also killed the deputy chief of Iraq’s powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.

Moreover, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday urged Iran to drop measures that go against the 2015 nuclear deal, after Tehran announced it would no longer abide by a limit on enrichment. "We call on Iran to withdraw all measures that are not in line with the nuclear agreement," German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British PM Boris Johnson said in a joint statement.