UK, Germany urge deescalation after Iranian missile attack

European governments condemned Tehran’s missile strikes.

European governments called for calm Wednesday morning following a series of Iranian missile attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq overnight.

Tehran fired ballistic missiles on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq early Wednesday in retaliation against the U.S. killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, expressing concern over “reports of casualties and use of ballistic missiles,” said: “We condemn this attack on Iraqi military bases hosting Coalition — including British — forces … We urge Iran not to repeat these reckless and dangerous attacks, and instead to pursue urgent deescalation.”

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, speaking on national breakfast television, said: “It is now up to the Iranians, above all, not to cause any additional escalation, which is why the appeal particularly goes to Tehran again.”

She added: “I can only say, certainly on behalf of the federal government, that we strongly reject this aggression.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer confirmed that no German soldiers had been injured in the attack. Spokespeople for the armed forces of Poland and Denmark also said that none of their soldiers stationed in Iraq had been harmed.

Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister, also condemned the Iranian attack and called for “everyone to exercise prudence and restraint in this situation.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meanwhile, said in a morning press conference with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell that “the use of weapons must stop now to give space for dialogue.”