When Britain’s foreign Secretary Dominic Raab visited
Jerusalem last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly
chewed his ear off.
Small wonder. It’s hard to exaggerate the perfidy,
cynicism and head-in-the-sand cowardice currently being displayed by Britain,
along with France and Germany, over Iran.
Instead of joining forces with those trying to
neutralise the growing threat from the Iranian regime, Britain and these two
other key European powers are actually acting in concert with the world’s twin
empires of evil, Russia and China, in shoring up this terrorist rogue state.
Earlier this month, the United States proposed at the
UN Security Council to extend the Iran arms embargo, which is due to expire on
October 18.
This was strongly supported by the Gulf states.The proposal, however, went down in flames. Only the
Dominican Republic voted in favour; Russia and China opposed it, while the
United Kingdom, France, Germany and other Security Council members abstained.
As a result of this debacle, the United States
activated the “snapback” mechanism under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
(JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal brokered by President Obama in 2015..Yet snapback is now also being blocked by the same
unholy alliance of Security Council members.
In June, the International Atomic Energy Authority
reported that Iran had enriched uranium beyond its permitted allowance and
committed other breaches of the agreement. The IAEA also said that Iran was
continuing to refuse to grant international inspectors access to its nuclear
sites and might be concealing undeclared nuclear materials and processes.
Britain, France and Germany know all this.Yet they
stood by while the Security Council proceeded to allow the world’s biggest
supporter of terrorism to resume buying and selling lethal weapons.The United
Kingdom, France and Germany are deeply reluctant to jeopardise the
billion-dollar trading links they have with China, Russia and Iran.
Britain was a cheerleader for the JCPOA. It dismissed
all concerns about Iran’s history of lies and deception. It denied that the
deal would at best only delay Iran’s production of nuclear weapons. It waved
aside the fact that it would channel billions of dollars into the coffers of
the most dangerous terrorist regime in the world.
Maybe. But Britain’s cultural default makes
it unable to grasp the unique derangement of
antisemitism and the murderous hatred
of Israel that drives both the Iranian mullahs and the Palestinian leadership
can never be deflected..
Britain believes that everyone is susceptible to
appeals to their short-term self-interest; and so everything can be resolved
through negotiation, peace processes and, if necessary, cutting a deal between
God and the devil.
Unabashed by his country’s shameful history of
appeasement in the region—and with the stench of its current repeat performance
rising from his briefing notes—Raab presumed to lecture the Israelis on how
they should produce peace.
Even now, the British government is obsessed with
meeting the Palestinians’ demands; even now, it is perpetuating the falsehood
that Israel is not legally entitled to apply its sovereignty to the disputed
territories.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, couched his tepid
welcome for the United Arab Emirates’ historic decision to normalise relations
with Israel as a welcome for Israel’s suspension of its sovereignty plan..
It is fear of Iran that fuelled the UAE deal. The
Gulf states understand that they need Israel and the United States to
neutralise the threat of Iranian regional hegemony. And they are deeply
concerned that if Joe Biden becomes president, he will become Obama mark two,
reinstating the JCPOA and again paving the way for an Iranian nuclear bomb with
international approval.
Clearly, this concern is shared in Jerusalem.
Trump’s resumed sanctions have weakened the regime.
The assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the strategic genius of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, was a blow from which it has not
recovered.
So there’s never been a more promising opportunity to
deliver a decisive blow against the regime, preferably by reimposing draconian
sanctions. But there’s also never been such a dangerous time, with rising
tensions and increasing Iran-backed attacks across both the Lebanese and Gaza
borders—and with this wounded regime perhaps determined, if it believes it is
indeed going down, to take Israel with it.
Such a time demands a unified resolve among those trying
to stop this evil. And standing up against it are the United States, Israel and
the Gulf states.
But on the other side stand the
United Kingdom, France and Germany, supporting Russia and China in shoring up a
regime that has waged a 40-year war against the west, intends to wipe Israel
off the map and is getting ever closer to possessing the nuclear weapons that
it thinks will enable it to do so..
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