Diplomats are in talks with western allies about reimposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, amid warnings that the country is a threat to British interests “at home and abroad”.
Senior diplomats are understood to be holding talks with France, Germany and the United States over triggering the “snap back” process that would reimpose sanctions on Tehran scrapped under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
It comes amid growing concerns over Iran’s military support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict and evidence of its sponsorship of domestic terrorism and kidnapping. This year police and the security services said they had foiled 15 plots by Iran to either kidnap or kill British or UK-based individuals it considers “enemies of the regime”.
In a letter to James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, a group of former diplomats, military chiefs and political leaders urged the government to adopt a tough strategy to contain the “growing threat”. They backed a report by the Policy Exchange think tank that called for the government to initiate the snap back sanction programme and impose “tougher sanctions” to tackle illicit Iranian finances. Signatories included Lord Sedwill, the former cabinet secretary; Lord Richards, the former chief of defence staff; and Michael Fallon, the former Conservative defence secretary.
In the letter, they described Iran as the “Middle East’s largest, most aggressive power” with an “obvious commitment to revising the global order”.
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“Iran’s increasingly appalling human rights record, accelerating nuclear programme, sponsorship of proxies throughout the Middle East, extensive assistance to Russia in its brutal war on Ukraine, and sponsorship of terrorism and kidnapping makes it an obvious threat to international stability.”
In May, The White House said Iran had supplied about 400 remotely controlled aircraft to Russia to use in its war against Ukraine and was looking to sell additional advanced attack drones.
The Policy Exchange paper recommended reimposing sanctions, disrupting the export of drones to Russia and clamping down on illicit Iranian finance. It warned that by concentrating on the nuclear issue, the West had allowed Iran to become a broader concern. “The threat is not simply nuclear, but a combination of Iranian military capabilities, proxy groups, intelligence and influence tools in the UK and elsewhere, and the nuclear programme.
“The most obvious failure of western policy, and particularly British and European policy, has been to compartmentalise the nuclear issue diplomatically and then treat this as the central policy issue in relations with Iran.
A Whitehall source confirmed that discussions about reimposing sanctions on Tehran were continuing, suggesting that a decision was expected to be taken by the end of the year.
