Iranians living in UK tell Starmer that war will only strengthen Tehran regime

Original article by Patrick Wintour Diplomatic Editor

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is among three of Iran’s former political prisoners and more than 100 Iranians living in the UK who have urged the British prime minister not to get drawn further into the Iran conflict.

They are all signatories in a letter to Keir Starmer saying the way the war is being conducted is strengthening the regime in Tehran.

The letter acts as a counterpoint to those in the diaspora backing Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s former pro-western monarch, and who support the attacks on Iran as a prelude to regime change. Pahlavi has offered to lead a democratic transition, but Trump has said he is looking for an internal candidate to lead the Middle Eastern country.

In their letter, they say: “Nobody can claim to want the end of the Islamic republic more than we do. But attacking the country in this way will have the opposite effect. It will entrench the authoritarians and give life to the fiction that has sustained them internally for decades: that they are fighting western imperialism.

“When Netanyahu – a man charged with international war crimes after killing countless civilians in Gaza – assassinates Iran’s dictator, that kills the man but immortalises the myth. Iranians wanted him tried and punished for his crimes, not given the martyr-ending he craved.”

The 86-year-old supreme leader, Ali Khamenei,was assassinated along with many in his family in Israeli airstrikes on the first day of the war. He has been succeeded by one of his sons, Mojtaba Khamenei.

In the letter, the group set out a series of peaceful and practical steps to help the internal opposition, including those held in prison, such as providing Starlink to end the continued communications blackout inside Iran.

Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, was held in a jail on espionage charges mainly in Tehran for six years from 2016. Other signatories include the Iranian political prisoner Aras Amiri, a former British Council worker kept in jail for three years in Evin prison in Tehran, and Nasrin Parvaz, who spent eight years in Iranian jails from 1982. Others include high-profile artists within the Iranian community as well as academics and writers.

They write: “A pro-democracy policy would protect political prisoners and ensure that Israel and the US do not bomb prisons like Evin. It is in those cells where the future democratic leaders of Iran reside. A pro-democracy policy would smuggle internet devices – not weapons – across the border, and break the blackout that is blanketing the country. A pro-democracy policy would call out Israel’s assassination policy even when it targets leaders we despise. There is so much that can be done in solidarity with Iranians. But joining in with Netanyahu’s forever wars is not it.”

Starmer adjusted his policy of refusing any cooperation with the US attack on Iran when he said it became necessary to stop Gulf states coming under attack from Iran.

The Iranian group say in the letter they are “overcome with grief. For decades we have been hoping for the day when Iranian democracy can finally flourish. Many of us have not been able to visit Iran for years for fear of imprisonment or worse.”

And they criticise the Israeli leader, arguing that racism underlay his policy when he called on Iranians not to “sit with your arms crossed and instead rise up to finish the job”. They reject the presumption behind his remarks that “90 million people had been idly waiting several decades for his bombs”.

They add: “This is of course not just Netanyahu’s war, Trump and the US are a significant part of it. But as US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said: ‘The president made the very wise decision – we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.’ So the US followed Netanyahu into this war.”