Mourners carry the casket of Qasem Soleimani through the capital. Tensions between Iran and the US continue to escalate in the wake of the drone strike which killed him

Boris Johnson has warned Donald Trump against targeting cultural sites in Iran in the wake of the assassination of Tehran’s most senior general.

However, the prime minister has said that “we will not lament” the killing of General Qasem Soleimani as a senior commander in Tehran threatened to hit British troops in the Middle East.

Speaking for the first time about the fatal drone strike on the second most powerful man in Iran, the prime minister called for “de-escalation” on all sides. Mr Johnson had earlier had phone calls with President Trump, President Macron and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

Who was Iran’s second most powerful figure, Qasem Soleimani?

He also spoke this morning with Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the Iraqi prime minister, and the pair agreed to “work together to find a