…‘A more dangerous world’

PARIS, France (AP):

Global powers warned Friday that the world became a more dangerous place after the US assassinated Iran’s top general, urging restraint on all sides. Britain and Germany also suggested that Iran shared some blame for provoking the targeted killing that dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the Mideast.

China, Russia and France, all permanent members of the UN Security Council, took a dim view of the US airstrike near Baghdad’s airport early Friday that killed Gen Qassem Soleimani and several of his associates. The 62-year-old led Iran’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the country’s foreign campaigns.

Oil prices surged on news of the killing, reflecting investor jitters about Mideast stability, and there were immediate threats of vengeance from Iran. Social media flooded with alarm, with Twitter users morbidly turning “WWIII” into the top trending term worldwide.

“We are waking up in a more dangerous world. Military escalation is always dangerous,” France’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Amelie de Montchalin, told RTL radio. “When such actions, such operations, take place, we see that escalation is under way.”

Russia likewise characterised the deadly US strike as “fraught with serious consequences.” A foreign ministry statement warned that, “such actions don’t help resolve complicated problems in the Middle East, but instead lead to a new round of escalating tensions.”