LONDON\/CANBERRA, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain has reduced staff at its embassies in Tehran and Baghdad to a minimum level due to escalating tensions following the US killing of a top Iranian military leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The withdrawal of the diplomats is a precautionary step rather than based on specific intelligence of a threat while ambassadors Rob Macaire in Tehran and Stephen Hickey in Baghdad will remain in place, according to the report, citing diplomatic sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the United States killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Quds Force, in an airstrike near Baghdad International Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The death of Soleimani has sparked outrage and revenge threats from Tehran, raising fear of an uncontrollable escalation in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in CANBERRA that the government is “strongly concerned” about the rising tensions in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) on Tuesday suspended all training operations in Iraq after the country’s government voted to expel American troops and its allies from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reynolds told Nine Entertainment newspapers that Australian troops are likely to remain in Iraq to continue the fight against Daesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Australia’s focus remains on supporting Iraq’s stability and unity and ensuring a de-escalation of tensions,” Reynolds said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The safety and security of Australians in Iraq and across the region, including our embassy staff and ADF personnel, remains our top priority.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 300 Australian troops are based in Iraq, with another 2,000 deployed throughout the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday told reporters that he was not told of the drone strike that killed Soleimani ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The United States took this action based on their own information and they took that action without discussing it with partners,” he said. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON\/CANBERRA, Jan 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Britain has reduced staff at its embassies in Tehran and Baghdad to a minimum level due to escalating tensions following the US killing of a top Iranian military leader. The withdrawal of the diplomats is a precautionary step rather than based on specific intelligence of a threat while ambassadors Rob […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57718"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}