WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence says he is still undecided as to whether the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was appropriate at this time.

Warner spoke with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday following a briefing on the attack. He fears the attack will stoke anti-American sentiment in the region. “America always has to be strong, but also smart. Strong in the sense that we always need to protect our people and our interests and Soleimani was a bad guy, there’s no question about that. But we also have to be smart,” Warner said.

Warner believes the U.S. should have consulted with our allies before taking out the Iranian general, adding: “you consult your allies, because we don’t want to go at this alone. What we’ve already seen by not consulting particularly with our NATO allies, we’ve seen that the NATO forces in Iraq have already stopped training the Iraqi troops.”

Sen. Warner added that Congress should have been consulted prior to the strike, noting that is it “both constitutionally required, but it’s also important because, one, you potentially get members of Congress to buy in ahead of time and, two, they may ask that hard question that’s not asked in an insular group.”