The US is aiming to “bring down” the economy of Iran and is in a “completely dominant” position militarily, according to former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove.
On the stalled peace talks, he told The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “There’s no point in flying 18 hours to hear the Iranians bang on again and not make any new proposals. For the Americans to have closed the Strait is a sensible move, and that clearly they’re trying to, as it were, bring down the Iranian economy.
“I don’t think the military objectives have changed. Particularly, you can look at the current situation as a continuation of conflict through negotiation. It’s just an aspect of the war which is not kinetic. And my expectation still is that the Americans and Israelis want to bring down the Iranian regime, and they’re going to press very hard to do that.
“The Iranians are in a very weak position and what I can’t understand is the media saying, ‘Oh, Trump’s blinked’. He hasn’t blinked. The Americans are in a completely dominant position militarily and economically. They need to sort of close the pressure on the Iranian regime, which I think is very brittle, very fragile at the moment. Let’s see what happens.”
On the threat of Iranian-inspired terrorist attacks in the UK, he said: “Clearly there’s an increased threat and there have been what looked like to me, not sort of highly organised conspiracies, but incidents where people are sympathetic to Iran.
“Maybe they’re connected with some of the Shia mosques that are dominated by Iranian influence. It’s well documented that the IRGC has its fingers on certain communities. I’ve been looking at some of these recent incidents, like the attack on the ambulances. It looks to me as though that’s pretty spontaneous but maybe there’s a direct connection.
“If you look back at the Iranian regime, it has carried out an awful lot of attacks on dissidents, terrorist attacks, they’ve usually been connected, in some respect, with Iranian communities, or diaspora overseas.”
He added: “I myself, am sanctioned by the Iranian regime. I’m not quite sure why but, because of my previous position, I’m on a list of people that they’ve sanctioned.”
Sir Richard said Trump’s remarks about the Falkland Islands should be of little concern: “It’s typical Trump bravado, to sort of get back, almost as a sort of personal slight to the United Kingdom.
“But look, actually, it’s the Americans who had problems with the Falklands, and if you go back to the Falklands War, initially, they didn’t support the UK attempt to regain it from the Argentinian invasion. It was only after a certain negotiation, a certain time, that they came on board and supported the British military initiative.
“There’s a history there, and frankly, I wouldn’t take what Trump is saying seriously. What difference is it going to make? None whatsoever at the current time. He likes the current, rather controversial President of Argentina, but I don’t see this as particularly serious issue, frankly.”