In response to a U.S. missile strike on Thursday that killed top Iranian intelligence commander Qassem Soleimani, sharply escalating tensions between the two countries, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power warned the attack could have catastrophic consequences.
“This is likely to get very ugly very quickly,” Power tweeted hours after the strike.
“A flag is not a strategy,” she added, in reference to an image of the American flag posted on Twitter by President Donald Trump on Thursday prior to a statement about the strike from the Pentagon.
In that statement, the Pentagon said Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” On Friday, Trump condemned Soleimani, saying he had “killed or badly wounded thousands of Americans over an extended period of time, and was plotting to kill many more...but got caught!”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised retaliation and called for three days of national mourning.
Power, who served for over three years as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama, appeared on Yahoo Finance’s “Influencers with Andy Serwer” in September, denouncing what she perceived as the Trump administration’s erratic approach to diplomacy amid news of Trump’s then-willingness to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
“There's plenty to talk to Iran about, and to condemn Iran for,” Power told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer. “But to go from 0 to 60, to have Trump and Rouhani meet, as happened in North Korea, as we saw in North Korea, when you haven't done the legwork, when you haven't done the preparation, when you don't know why you're there other than to be able to tweet a photo of having been there, that is not a recipe for foreign policy success.”
Another top foreign policy official under Obama, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, criticized the Trump administration’s approach to Iran during an appearance on “Influencers with Andy Serwer” in October.
“I think the Trump administration has a perception, whether they're dealing with Iran, or China, or any of these ancient cultures, that have a history, and a pride, and a philosophy of their position in the world, which may not accord to our view of their position in the world, but that they're not going to just back down because we say, ‘boo,’” she said.
“Too often, we see the president backing down, after escalating and raising expectations,” added Rice, who served as National Security Advisor during President Barack Obama’s second term.