A range of British political and media figures, some associated with the Israel lobby, are now openly calling for confrontation with Iran.

Last month, Tory MP Mark Pritchard asked in parliament whether Britain “might actually be hitting the wrong target” in the Middle East.

“It might be the case”, he said, “that while we have the best of diplomatic intentions and we do not want to provoke Iran [into] a major conflict with NATO, the US or the UK, putting off that decision now will cost more lives in the future”.

While acquiescing in Israel’s possession of nuclear arms, British ministers repeatedly say that Iran should “never” be allowed to acquire such weapons. They have threatened to consider “all options” if Tehran appears close to doing so.

Over recent months, the British media has also been talking up the prospect of military action against Iran.

Sky News’ military analyst Sean Bell deliberated the utility of “a series of calibrated strikes against Iran”. He added that there is a “limit to how many diplomatic options you’ve got on the table if you want to keep trade flowing”.

Con Coughlin, the Telegraph’s defence and foreign affairs editor, declared that the “West is now at war with Iran and its proxies”, adding we “shouldn’t fear a direct confrontation with Tehran”.

  • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.ukOPEnglish
    11·
    4 months ago

    Reading the headline I guessed “the frothing at the mouth parts of the Tory party and the right wing press”. Turns out I wasn’t wrong.

    • CTDummy@lemm.ee
      5·
      4 months ago

      Nothing would be a greater distraction then placing a war between and their absolute trash governing over the past several years.

  • FatLegTed@feddit.uk
    23·
    4 months ago

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised (horrified, yes) to learn Iran has a nuke.

    The same happened with North Korea.

    Our years of inaction/policies have led to events that made all this possible. We have only ourselves to blame.

    • iain@feddit.nl
      82·
      4 months ago

      I can’t really blame them either. If you don’t want to be invaded by the USA and end up like Iraq or Afghanistan, you have to be able to defend yourself.

      • Alsephina@lemmy.mlEnglish
        91·
        4 months ago

        And Libya. Giving up their nuclear deterrence and trusting imperial core countries to improve relations with them in return instead of destabilizing and invading them like they actually did was a grave mistake.

        Basically