Top Turkish, UK diplomats discuss Soleimani killing

By Nazli Yuzbasioglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign minister on Sunday spoke to the U.K.'s top diplomat on the heels of the killing of a top Iranian general in a U.S. airstrike.

According to diplomatic sources, Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu and U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab discussed the killing of Qasem Soleimani, who headed Iran's Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds force.

Soleimani was killed in a U.S. drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.

His death marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since Trump chose in 2018 to unilaterally withdraw Washington from a 2015 nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who gave Soleimani the country's highest honor last year, vowed "severe retaliation" in response to his killing.

The Pentagon accused Soleimani of plotting the embassy attack and planning to carry out additional attacks on U.S. diplomats and service members in Iraq and the region.

*Writing by Sena Guler