Former MI6 Chief Condemns Donald Trump's 'Misguided' War In Iran
A former MI6 boss has condemned Donald Trump’s “misguided” decision to go to war with Iran.
Sir John Sawers said the US president had launched the conflict “on false premises”.
He also warned that the war could increase the Tehran regime’s determination to build a nuclear bomb, rather than wipe out its ability to have one as Trump had vowed.
America and Israel began bombing Iran on February 28 in a mission the White House called “Operation Epic Fury”.
Tehran retaliated by bombing neighbouring Gulf states allied to the US, and by closing the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway.
That has sent oil prices soaring and raised the prospect of a global economic meltdown.
Trump announced on Truth Social that fresh talks were taking place which could lead to a peace deal.
But speaking to Radio 4′s Today programme, Sawers – who was chief of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service from 2009 until 2014 – said: “It’s very difficult to make sense of what comes out of the US administration statements.
“Somebody said we are living in Alice In Wonderland where the ceasefire is intact as long as the president says it’s intact, regardless of rocket attacks on US ships and Emirati oil installations.
“The good news is that both the Americans and the Iranians want to find a way out of this conflict. The Iranians have been badly damaged, the Americans are paying a costly political price because it was clearly a misguided conflict done on false premises.”
At the start of the war, Trump claimed he wanted regime chance in Iran and the destruction of the country’s nuclear capability.
But Sawers said: “We’ve been working for 25 years to put an end to the Iranian nuclear programme. If you can’t solve a problem directly you have to manage it, and we’ve been managing it for that last 25 years.
“It’s going to continue to be a challenge. It’s not as if the Iranians are going to give up their nuclear ambitions. In fact, if anything, this war will have reinforced in the minds of some Iranians that actually they do want to have a nuclear weapon.
“So this is not going to go away just because of some patched up deal between the Americans and the Iranians. It’s a long-term issue that we’re going to have to control ... you can’t bomb away a people’s desire to have nuclear weapons.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.