Turkish FM held talks on killing of Qasem Soleimani

By Ahmet Furkan Mercan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign minister on Sunday spoke with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his Qatari counterpart over the phone, diplomatic sources said late Sunday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu, in separate phone conversations with Guterres and Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, discussed the killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone airstrike in Iraq.

Cavusoglu's conversation with Guterres was also about Libya, the sources added.

Turkey's top diplomat today had phone conversations with U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Soleimani's death marked a dramatic escalation in tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which have often been at a fever pitch since President Donald 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.

Soleimani was the long-time commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, which was designated a terror group by the U.S. The group is estimated to have 20,000 members.

*Writing by Dilara Hamit