Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Tom Tugendhat MP MBE urged the UK Government to “stand with its allies – and stand up to Iran”, in light of the UK’s abstention in a UN vote to extend the arms embargo on Iran, in an article published in ConservativeHome this week.
Remarking on the shifting alliances in the region in light of the Israel-UAE deal and emphasising that “interest-based alignments” are emerging as a result of Iran’s regional aggression, Mr Tugendhat wrote: “Israel is losing its reputation in the Middle East. For decades, it played the role of chief villain with nations around the region blaming Mossad for every mishap. Today, Jerusalem is a partner with the United Arab Emirates – just the latest of many to build ties to Jerusalem and seek cooperation”.
He underlined: “From Syria to Yemen, Arab states know well the danger that Iran poses. Militias paid for by Tehran and controlled by the Revolutionary Guard Corps have turned tension into conflict, and fuelled wars that have cost hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed whole countries”.
Criticising the UK’s abstention at the UN, Mr Tugendhat continued: “That makes the UK’s recent UN vote even more surprising. On 14 August we, along with France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia, abstained on a motion to extend the UN arms embargo on Iran. Only the United States and the Dominican Republic voted in favour”.
“That decision to abstain puts us even further apart from our most important security partner and regional allies – undermining a global approach, and pushing us firmly back towards the EU we have just left. Worse, it risks raising questions about the veto that none of us would like to have posed”, he said.
Calling on the UK to change its policy and stand with its Middle Eastern allies, he wrote: “The UK should now be joining the US in calling out the real threat to peace in the Middle East and standing with our friends in the region—from Abu Dhabi to Jerusalem. We need to defend the principles of international cooperation, not see them used as a fig leaf for human rights violations, war and nuclear proliferation… Abstaining shows we’re not prepared to stand up for our friends and won’t stand with our allies – and that weakens everyone, but most of all us”.
