NATO urges Iran to show restraint

BRUSSELS NATO Allies called for restraint and de-escalation after an extraordinary meeting of the alliance's main decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council on Monday. During the meeting, NATO ambassadors discussed recent development in Iraq and rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran. "A new conflict would be in no one's interest. So, Iran must refrain from further violence and provocation," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the press conference following the meeting. Stoltenberg admitted that Iran has been carrying out "destabilizing activity in the region", saying that all NATO allies agreed that the country "should never be able to develop nuclear weapons." However, Stoltenberg declined to comment on the possibility of the U.S. evoking NATO's collective defense clause in case Iran engages in retaliation. At this stage, "speculation" on the possible scenarios risk producing adverse effects and escalating tensions instead of calming them, he asserted. Stoltenberg underscored NATO's strong support for its training mission in Iraq despite its suspension due to security reasons. According to Stoltenberg, the mission was an important part of the global coalition's efforts to defeat ISIS. "The best weapon to fight international terrorism is to train local forces and to build a local capacity. This is exactly what NATO's mission does in Iraq," he said, adding that NATO needed the consent of Baghdad, which recently decided to expel foreign forces from the country. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, was killed in a U.S. drone strike outside Baghdad's airport on Friday. Soleimani's slaying 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 nuclear pact world powers struck with Tehran. Iran promised to take revenge for the killing of Soleimani and announced on Sunday it would stop complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. President Trump has since threatened to target cultural sites in Iran.