Trump has done the right thing. Regime change must be the next step
I first visited Iran with a few fellow MPs back in 2006, and for eight years of my career in Westminster I co-chaired the Iran group in Parliament. I have met Iranian ministers and generals, some of whom are no longer alive after Israel's strikes. I have even been to a party (non-drinking) in North Tehran where the granddaughter of a Grand Ayatollah was in attendance. I have met the hardliners, the reformers and the ordinary Iranians.
Iran is a beautiful country with some of the nicest people in the Middle East. They are a brave people, struggling to live free from oppression. I say brave because many Iranians challenge the regime at great cost to themselves. In recent times we have seen the Green movement and the Hijab protest. It is not uncommon to meet someone in Tehran whose friends have been beaten or detained by the authorities for something as simple as attending a party.
Over the many years I have followed Iranian politics I have sadly seen a slide away from limited, measured reform towards the hardliners in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. For years now the IRGC has extended its tentacles further across the globe. Iran's proxies have murdered, plotted and attacked not just Britain but also her allies in the region.
Yet we all tolerated such behaviour. Some of us found hope in the inherent quality in the Iranian people. Perhaps over-optimistically, we hoped that as so often with revolutionary countries, there might be another revolution.
Sadly, under the stewardship of the late General Soleimani – who was head of the IRGC Quds Force, responsible for foreign and clandestine operations, until he was assassinated by the US in 2020 – Iran became not only more aggressive but more capable. Slowly but surely it looked like Iran was heading towards a military dictatorship. The Revolutionary Guard 's grip tightened.
Meanwhile the West kept trying to do deals on nuclear enrichment at the very same time that the regime's supporters were chanting 'death to America and death to Britain.' We all started to look like a parent who ignores the disruptive child for too long rather than saying 'no'. When one examines the long charge sheet of Iranian activity over these last 20 years it is amazing how we pretty much stood back. From death squads in London, to storming our Embassy and taking dual nationals hostage the Supreme Leader and his government have got away with so much. And it is only months ago that Iran's proxies – the Houthis – directly attacked British warships.
You can only tolerate 'death to America! Death to Britain!' so many times before losing patience. I can give you an example of quite how insulting and ludicrous the regime can be. They have named the street next to the British Embassy 'Bobby Sands Avenue' in tribute to the IRA terrorist. Once when I visited they accused Britain of choosing the Pope! It would be funny if it wasn't so menacing.
The recent strikes on the Iranian nuclear program were long time coming but Iran had been warned and warned. To put their program into perspective for civil nuclear power no one needs more than 20 per cent enriched uranium. Iran had in the last couple of years breached the 90 per cent levels needed to make a bomb, and still they were playing games. They only have themselves to blame.
But there is a but. Because whether you thought it was wise or not for President Trump to do this, we are now in a whole new ball game. The worst thing to do would be to not see the mission through: this is not a video game which can be switched off from the golf course of Mar-a-Lago.
To damage the nuclear programme and not destroy it would be probably worse than not doing anything at all. Twenty years of 'limited and proportionate responses' have got us nowhere: the time for limits is past.
Meanwhile, Iran will respond – maybe immediately or maybe in months to come. To protect our allies in the Gulf, the military strikes must also degrade substantially the large stockpile of ballistic missiles that Iran has at its disposal. The Houthis in Yemen must not be allowed to resume their campaign against shipping. If Iran is going to be brought to the table it must have no options left. The regime itself must feel in peril. We should not hold back in offering to the Iranian people an alternative path: a path full of oil wealth and trade, leading to an open and prosperous society.
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