Iran is the single most dangerous state in the world, and be under no illusion, its desperate, flailing, Islamic theocracy has Britain in its sights.
And yes, there is some really tough competition for that darkest of sobriquets among the current Axis of Evil nations. But China, powerful as she is largely complies with international diplomacy (at least for now), Putin’s war-weary Russia has largely put all its eggs into one Ukrainian basket, and North Korea, nuclear-armed as she is, seems content to remain the planet’s permanently isolated basket case state despite the annual sabre-rattling with its neighbour to the south.
Which leaves Iran.
Probably the most successful regime on earth when it comes to destabilising both the West, and the Middle East to the West’s detriment.
A regime with an avowed hatred of the UK and US and a mission, sanctioned at the very top, to destroy us.
There are an estimated 25,000 illegal Iranian migrants in Britain. It seems almost moot to point out that our security services have identified multiple Revolutionary Guard sleeper cells, that MI5 has thwarted upwards of 20 Iranian plots to kill British citizens on British soil, and that three Iranian men are currently awaiting trial on espionage and “intent to commit serious violence” charges.
And how did these migrants get here?
Full marks if you answered “illegally on small boats” or “smuggled in the back of a lorry”.
Oh, and five other Iranian nationals were also taken into custody the same day as part of an entirely separate investigation.
Given all this, it seems inexplicable and bizarre that no British Government has seen fit to proscribe the Iranian Guard (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) as a terrorist organisation.
And this is before we even touch on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s evil genius in funding murderous groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to do his dirty work for him.
Horrific monsters all, and all ultimately aimed at damaging the US and West, but follow the money and it all leads back to Khamenei.
And that is before we touch upon the thousands of drones supplied to Putin so he can continue to terrorise the Ukrainian people.
And that, of course, is before we even touch on the Ayatollah’s obsession with obtaining a working nuclear bomb.
Now, several nations, including our good selves, have a nuclear deterrent.
But none of them, even Pakistan, is driven from the very top by quite such blind religion-fuelled hatred as the Islamic Republic of Iran.
An Iranian nuke would not be for deterring it would be for attacking.
So it is a crumb of comfort that last night Britain, France and Germany announced they are planning to revive UN-backed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear weapons program – the so-called “snapback” protocol which is an admission that softly-softly negotiations have failed.
It is long, long overdue.
Even our hapless Foreign Secretary David Lammy gets it and said Britain is now “left with no choice” but to reintroduce sanctions.
He added: “Iran’s nuclear programme remains a threat to global peace and security. Over the past six years, Iran has broken almost all limits in the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) and its stockpile of enriched uranium is 45 times over the JCPOA limit.
“Alongside our European allies, the UK has negotiated in good faith since 2019, when Iran began to disregard the nuclear deal. We supported a viable deal in 2022, which Iran rejected, and recently offered an extension to sanctions relief, subject to Iran meeting set conditions.”
What that means is that Iran is supposed to have nuclear materials enriched to 3.67% – in fact it has considerable stocks enriched to 60% and some at 90%.
There is only one reason for having uranium enriched to this level.
This hateful, medieval regime has to end.
And there are structures in place to facilitate this, and indeed a groundswell of support on Iran’s streets to help speed this process.
But for too long Britain and the West have chosen to appease the brutal regime and become complicit in the mass state murders and horrific repression.
One such group offering hope for the future is the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which advocates a peaceful transition to a secular, democratic, non-nuclear state and an end to women as second-class citizens.
Its President-elect Maryam Rajavi said yesterday the mullahs’ regime will never abandon the nuclear bomb and added: “The Iranian Resistance has long warned that appeasement makes war inevitable, a reality we have already witnessed. Without appeasement and concessions, this regime would never have come so close to obtaining the nuclear bomb. In that case, there would have been no war either.”
On September 6 tens of thousands of Iranian expats, supporters of the NCRI, many from the UK will take part in a major rally in Brussels to call on the Western governments, including the UK to take a firm stand against the regime and to side with the Iranian people and their desire a regime change by themselves.
Between you and me, I don’t know what I find more concerning Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon or Iran committing an atrocity on Britain’s streets.
But I am fairly certain that getting tough with Tehran is the only way to stop us finding out.
