Ex-diplomat says Britain 'complicit' in US-Israel war on Iran
Keir Starmer's announcement that the UK will allow the US to use its bases to attack Iran makes Britain a 'legitimate target' for the embattled Middle Eastern nation, a former UK ambassador to Iran has warned.
Sir Richard Dalton, Britain’s top official in Tehran from 2003 to 2006, said the break up of Iran could see regime supporters take up arms against an uprising which would also be armed. Countries across the region and those further afield with interests in Iran could be drawn into the fighting to try to control a spillover of refugees and disorder.
“One's sympathy goes out to the 85 million Iranians who did not deserve that – if that comes to pass – and who have been under an oppressive government for too long and do not deserve the fate of the Syrians, the Afghans and the Libyans,” Dalton told Declassified on Monday. In the face of such prospects, Dalton said the British government should be calling for a ceasefire and working with other “middle-ranking powers” to make it happen.
Hegseth WON'T RULE OUT BOOTS ON GROUND
Iranian American Scholars Denounce U.S.-Israeli Attack, Warn Regime Change Efforts Will Backfire
As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its third day, dragging much of the Middle East into armed conflict, we speak with two Iranian American scholars about the situation.
"It's quite a devastating attack on the infrastructure of the country, both in terms of the state infrastructure and civilian infrastructure," says Golnar Nikpour, associate professor of modern Iranian history at Dartmouth College. She notes that far from leading to a popular uprising against the government, as President Trump has encouraged, the U.S.-Israeli attacks have forced Iranians to worry about their immediate safety from the bombs.
"These attacks are causing much suffering for Iranian people, and it's destroying the space in which Iranians were struggling for social justice and civil liberties," says Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, a fierce critic of the government who was once imprisoned on death row in Iran but who nevertheless opposes the war. "I'm very pessimistic about the possibility of a regime change in Iran without having a clear idea of what is going to replace it."
According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, more than 550 people have been killed in Iran since Saturday, when the U.S. and Israel began an intense bombing campaign and assassinated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A number of other top Iranian officials have also been killed. Iran has retaliated by launching missiles targeting Israel, as well as U.S. allies across the region, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus, where an Iranian drone hit a British air base. Fighting has also resumed between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
