Tehran’s mayhem cannot be tolerated

An anti-Iranian demonstration is held outside the Iranian Embassy in London on April 14

There have been times since the atrocities of October 7 that someone unversed in Middle Eastern politics could be forgiven for thinking the most disruptive force in the region was Israel. Mass demonstrations have taken place denouncing the Jewish state’s response to the attack on its territory.

Its leaders and people are forever being entreated to avoid escalation and to act proportionately. They are hectored, lectured and told to act responsibly. No other country in the world is required to behave in this way when it is attacked by states that want to wipe it off the face of the earth.

Once again Israel has been subjected to an onslaught only to be told not to retaliate, to follow a diplomatic route and, above all, not to make things worse in an already volatile region.

Yet it is not Israel that has caused all of this trouble, but Iran. It is the ayatollahs in Tehran who bankrolled Hamas and encouraged its murderous pogrom last autumn, killing more than 1,000 people and taking hundreds hostage. It is Iran who arms and funds Hezbollah in Lebanon, where thousands of missiles – provided by the Iranians – are targeted at Israel.

It is Iran who supports the Houthis in Yemen currently subjecting the world’s shipping to the threat of drone and missile attacks, forcing vessels away from the Suez Canal. It is Iran who is sponsoring assassination attempts on foreign soil against critics of the regime.

Where are the protest marches against Iran, against its deliberate destabilising of the region, its treatment of women and minorities, its efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, its extra-judicial killings, all in the name of isolating Israel and spreading Shia Islam?

Why is a brutal, theocratic autocracy that keeps its own people under the yoke considered somehow deserving of greater latitude than a democracy responding to attacks on its territory?

There may well be questions for Israel to answer about some of their activities in Gaza but they would not be there at all were it not for Iran. There would be no potential famine or wrecked towns if Tehran had not funded and encouraged Hamas to attack Israel.

The democratic world stood alongside Israel at the weekend when it came under fire from hundreds of rockets, missiles and drones from Iran. The defences and air forces of a number of nations, including the US, the UK and France, helped repulse the onslaught. Damage was negligible apart from some damage to an airfield. The Iron Dome held and all that was exposed was Iran’s weakness since its attempts to degrade Israel’s air defences failed utterly.

Now President Biden, Rishi Sunak, Emmanuel Macron and the rest are urging Israel to leave it there. Their argument seems to be that since the Iranians were taking revenge for an Israeli raid on Damascus earlier this month, which killed two leading generals in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), tit-for-tat should be avoided.

But there is no equivalence here. The IRGC is actively seeking Israel’s downfall, urging Hezbollah to enter the fray with its experienced troops, battle-hardened by years of involvement in Syria’s civil war. The Damascus strike can be seen as pre-emptive action against the chief perpetrators. Israel wants to be left in peace but its enemies refuse to do so.

Arguably, Iran should have been dealt with years ago yet since arriving in the White House, President Biden has failed to recognise Tehran as the cause of all the trouble and has even sought to negotiate with the ayatollahs. They have no interest in a rapprochement with the West and have made alliances with Russia and China.

The reason western leaders are so jittery about Israel’s likely reaction to the weekend’s attack is because they fear this can no longer be contained within the Middle East and has the capacity to spread.

Indeed it already has. Russia has been using Iranian drones to strike energy infrastructure in Ukraine, depriving millions of power, heat, and critical services. People in Ukraine are dying as a result of Iran’s actions.

The question, therefore, that confronts western planners is not how to rein in Israel but what to do about Iran. No-one should any longer harbour illusions about its malign role in the Middle East. Its hand can be detected in all of the region’s most dangerous crises. The only way to deal with Tehran is from a position of strength. Allowing the ayatollahs to continue with their campaign of mayhem is no longer an option.

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