LONDON 6 Jan (ANA)  - No 10 has urged Iraq to allow UK troops to stay in the country following the US assassination of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, saying their work is vital.

 

Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq on Friday on the orders of President Donald Trump.

 

Iraqi MPs responded to the strike by passing a non-binding resolution calling for an end to the foreign military presence in their country.

 

European leaders have called for all sides to show restraint.

 

Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of senior ministers later to discuss the deepening crisis and spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi by phone on Monday morning.

 

A Downing Street spokesman said the leaders discussed the need to "deescalate tensions in the region" and "agreed to work together to find a diplomatic way forward".

 

"The prime minister underlined the UK's unwavering commitment to Iraq's stability and sovereignty and emphasised the importance of the continued fight against the shared threat from Daesh [the Islamic State group]".

 

No 10 also distanced itself from the US president's threat that cultural sites in Iran could be targeted, saying: "There are international conventions in place that prevent the destruction of cultural heritage."

 

The Army says that British troops are in the country to provide training and equipment to Iraqi and Kurdish security forces - rather than in a combat role - and have trained more than 25,000 Iraqi forces.

 

Caretaker Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Abdul Mahdi spoke in favour of US and other foreign forces leaving the country, although most Sunni and Kurdish MPs boycotted the vote.

 

A UK government spokesman said that coalition forces were in Iraq to protect its people and others from the Islamic State group, at the request of the Iraqi government.

 

Meanwhile, Iran's ambassador to the UK has strongly denied reports in the Times that his country had threatened to kill British troops following the assassination of Soleimani.

 

The paper quotes an unnamed senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard as saying that its forces would "target US troops in the Middle East without any concern about killing its allies, including UK troops".

 

But Hamid Baeidinejad described the story as "provocative" and a "vicious lie" in a Twitter post.

 

"I will ask the concerned UK authorities to take swift action to stop such malicious false propaganda in this very sensitive time," he said.(ANA)

FA/ANA/6 January 2020-------