Russian Senator Konstantin Kosachev called the U.S. killing of a key Iranian military commander “the worst-case scenario,” and said he believed that Iranian retribution “will not take long.”
The U.S. early on Friday killed Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force and architect of Iran’s spreading military influence in the Middle East, in an airstrike at Baghdad airport.
Soleimani, who led the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards and played a key role in fighting in Syria and Iraq, acquired celebrity status at home and abroad.
In a reaction to Soleimani’s death, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to exact harsh revenge.
“This is very difficult news, a harbinger of new clashes between the Americans and radical Shiites in Iraq,” said Senator Kosachev, who is the chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, in an interview with the state-run RIA Novosti News Agency.
“But I will be glad to be proved wrong because wars are easy to start, but very difficult to end.”
Dmitri Trenin, a prominent Russian foreign policy expert and head of the Moscow Carnegie Centre said he believed the killing of Soleimani will further heighten tensions in the Persian Gulf.
“The killing of Soleimani will not deter Iran. More likely it will further escalate the situation in the region, starting with Iraq,” Trenin said on Twitter.
Russia and Iran have been key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country’s civil war. The two countries, together with China held joint naval drills at the end of last month in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman.
