In January 2020, Trump ordered the killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, which was accomplished on January 3 in an airstrike on Baghdad International Airport. Trump later announced Soleimani's death in a televised address, calling Soleimani "the number-one terrorist anywhere in the world" and saying that he was "plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel." US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft wrote a letter to the UN Security Council in which she said that the act was one of self-defense. At the same time, she wrote in the letter that the US stood "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime."