Iranians Urge UK PM Not to Escalate Conflict with Tehran

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual national, and more than 100 Iranians living in the UK have signed a letter to Keir Starmer, urging him not to get drawn further into the Iran conflict. They claim that the current war strategy is strengthening the regime in Tehran.

The letter, which acts as a counterpoint to those in the diaspora backing Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's former pro-western monarch, states: "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."

The group, which includes former political prisoners and high-profile artists within the Iranian community, set out a series of peaceful and practical steps to help the internal opposition, including providing Starlink to end the continued communications blackout inside Iran.

In the letter, they criticise Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, 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".

The Iranian group say they are "overcome with grief" due to the conflict and have been hoping for the day when Iranian democracy can finally flourish.