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A Royal Navy admiral has warned a US invasion of Iran would need millions of men comparable to the occupation of Germany at the end of World War 2 .

Admiral Lord West – formerly the most senior ranking member of the Royal Navy – warned the unfolding situation in the Middle East is “highly dangerous” after the US killed Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani – who Admiral West branded a “nasty piece of work” – was the head of Iran’s so-called Quds Force, a branch of their military responsible for launching terrorist operations.

The world is now waiting with bated breath to see how Iran will respond to the killing – with the regime promising “revenge”, “vengeance” and “retaliation” against the West.

Royal Navy hero Admiral West told Daily Star Online it is “highly likely” there will be a response by Iran.

And he warned the US the only way to launch a successful full-scale war with Iran it would be an operation comparable to the invasion of Germany at the end of World War 2.

In a message to war hawks in Washington pushing for conflict, he said simply: “Be careful what you wish for.”

(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Admiral West explained that a limited campaign of strategic strikes to knock out all Iranian capability would not be enough for the US.

He told this website should the US opt for the strategy, and hope it will lead to a peaceful revolution within Iran, it simply will not work.

And for them to ensure a peaceful end to a conflict, the US would have to launch a full-scale ground invasion.

The admiral said: “If you want to have a full war with Iran, you would have to go to war-footing, call up a couple of million men, and fully take it over like we did with Germany in World War 2.

“And [the US] are not going to do that, so in the end you are left with a festering sore.

“If you just are relying on a revolution in Iran, you are deluding yourselves.”

(Image: EPA)

Admiral West added: “There is no doubt the Americans and ourselves could be drawn into this.

“We could destroy all their naval units, naval bases, airfields and wipe out their aircraft – but then what are you going to do?



“The Americans don’t want to invade Iran, if they did that they would have to go onto a war footing. They don't want to do that.

“So what you are left with is a badly damaged Iran which would have the mild Iranians rallying to the flag and out for vengeance.”

West described the idea that the US could strike Iran in such a way it would lead to a smooth revolution is “cloud-cuckoo land” – and said a botched war could lead to years of consequences such as terrorism.

(Image: VIA REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump personally ordered the strike on Soleimani while he was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

It came in response to a string of clashes between Iran and the US, culminating in the storming of the US Embassy in Baghdad.

Pentagon chiefs warned that Soleimani was planning further attack on US forces in the Middle East.

The general was a popular figure in Iran, tipped to one day lead the country, but has been described as a figure more dangerous than Osama bin Laden and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi .

Three days of mourning are currently underway in Iran as fears rage of a new conflict on the horizon – with Trump taunting them they have “never won a war”.

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Admiral West blamed the current situation of the Trump administration axing the so-called nuclear deal which swapped an ease in sanctions of a pledge not to develop nuclear weapons.

He said ever since then things have been “hotting up” – and he added he was “amazed” there was no US response when Iran was blamed for a drone attack on oil fields in Saudi Arabia.

The Royal Navy hero – who was the last man aboard HMS Ardent when it was sunk during the Falklands War – also questioned the legality of the US killing Soleimani, with the strike happening on foreign soil in Iraq.

“Does Trump really want there to be a war with Iran? I would hope he doesn’t, it is in nobody’s interest,” he said

“And if Iran does something stupid, there will again be a response from the Americans.”

(Image: REUTERS)

Admiral West said the world now is “more chaotic” than at any time since he joined the Royal Navy some 51-years ago.

He said: “In the Cold War we had mutually assure destruction, but there was a certain stability.

“Everyone was talking to each other, and we knew the risks. People behaved very carefully.

“Now the old certainties have gone, the old rules based system has been attacked from all directions.”

He branded the Arab Spring of 2011 as a “disaster” saying it threw the Middle East into a “complete and utter mess” –helping to fuel the current crisis.

(Image: Getty Images)

Trump continued with his rhetoric despite widespread calls for calm, saying that Soleimani's "reign of terror is over" and describing him as having a "sick passion" for killing.

The US President said he ordered the strike to prevent a conflict, but Iran continues to threaten to take action.

Iran’s UN ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said in a chilling CNN interview that the killing of Soleiman was “tantamount to opening a war against Iran”.

He said: “The response for a military action is a military action."

The ambassador earlier told the UN Security Council that the US had committed a “criminal act” and a “gross violation of the principles of international law”.

(Image: afp/AFP via Getty Images)

Former foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt warned of the peril being faced after recent "extreme" actions by both the US and Iran, which have simmered since Trump tore up a nuclear deal between the nations.

He described the latest round of tensions as an “incredibly dangerous game of chicken”.

“Both sides have calculated that the other side cannot afford, and doesn't want, to go to war," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Hunt warned the tensions created a "very difficult situation" for the UK as an ally of the States, saying Britain "cannot afford to be neutral".

He said: “But this is a very, very risky situation, and I think the job that we have to do as one of the US's closest allies is to use our influence to argue for more consistent US policy.”