Sen. Rand Paul predicted there will be war with Iran.
A day after U.S. forces killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani at the direction of President Trump, the Kentucky Republican declared that diplomacy “is dead” in the Middle East regarding Tehran.
“I think that there will be an escalation, and there will be a war with Iran,” Paul said in a phone interview Friday afternoon on Fox News.
The comments by Paul, an ally of the president, stands in stark contrast to what Trump himself told reporters earlier in the day.
“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump said. “We do not take action to start a war.”
Soleimani, 62, was killed Thursday in an airstrike near Baghdad International Airport along with Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, leader of the Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces.
The Pentagon described the attack as a “decisive defensive action” in response to Soleimani “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Iran has vowed “forceful revenge” for Soleimani’s killing, and the United States is deploying approximately 3,000 more troops to the Middle East as the situation plays out.
Tensions boiled over in Iraq after a U.S. airstrike killed 25 last week. Pro-Iranian protesters circled the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and chanted, “Death to America!” days before Trump initiated a military response.
Paul said he has not recently spoken to the president about the situation but warned the Trump administration should be careful not to spark a war in the Middle East without the approval of Congress, echoing concerns of his Democratic colleagues.
Among Trump’s more hawkish allies in Congress, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he told Trump to consider targeting Iran’s economy to prevent retaliation for the decision to kill Soleimani.
