This sponsorship grows in line with our wilful ignorance. And there was little to gain from reminding them that the funds we have already given the Iranian regime have contributed to the sponsorship of terrorism across the Middle East – and, inevitably, across the West. They didn’t care that Tehran operates a policy of “take our gas and shut your mouth”. They were more than willing to ignore the killing, torturing and maiming. Some Western commentators even entertained the notion of turning to Iran for energy once sanctions hit Russia. But they ignore the fact that we are facing these problems precisely because we spent so many years failing to properly confront tyrants, from Moscow to Tehran. More cynical political opponents might say that we are paying the price for interfering in other countries’ affairs. They might argue that these problems arose because we made the Ukrainian cause our own. Some might question the wisdom of encouraging “instability” elsewhere in the world at a time of spiralling inflation at home, with soaring energy bills and food prices. And we must support them because, beyond the clear moral imperative, it works in our self-interest too. That’s why we must support, beyond just lip service, the thousands of Iranians now out in the streets risking their lives. Ukraine and Iran are two fronts of the same war – a war being waged on decency and pluralism and, above all, the desires of ordinary people to live in a democratic and free state. I have spent more than eight years visiting Ukraine and its battlefields, and I am half Iranian: my family fled the country in the 1970s, escaping precisely the sort of atavistic violence people are now protesting against. The link between the two countries couldn’t be clearer to me. In key regards, it mirrors the fight in Ukraine. If ever there was a struggle between the values we uphold – freedom, tolerance and the willingness to leave people alone as long as they don’t bother us – and the characteristics we despise, above all theocratic fascism, it is this battle in the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran. It has triggered an extraordinary wave of anger and defiance. The demonstrations began after the killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, by the country’s loathsome morality police for the “crime” of showing too much hair under her hijab. And I think the very same thing as Iranians take to the streets to protest against their country’s barbaric regime, as they have been doing for more than two weeks now. If this seems like a glib statement, it is rescued by virtue of being true. After all, he is waging a war for freedom against a genocidal oppressor, and that is a fight that concerns us all. I can’t remember exactly how I responded, but the gist was that it was the least we could do. Earlier this year, I sat in the canteen of an army base on the eastern front of Ukraine’s war against Russian imperialism and listened to a soldier from Kyiv tell me how grateful he was for all of Britain’s support.
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