Polanski urges Starmer to condemn Trump’s ‘illegal’ strikes on Iran | UK | News
The Green Party leader condemned Israeli and US attacks on Iran, calling them “illegal and unprovoked”. Zack Polanski said it was “surprising” that Keir Starmer was “incompetent” to stand up to Donald Trump.
On Saturday morning, strikes began in Tehran in an attempt to change the regime, with Israeli spy agency Mossad calling for an uprising on X (formerly Twitter). Religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an attack on his compound. Trump announced this on social media without any evidence, and state media later confirmed it.
Preliminary figures are that 201 people died and 747 were injured; 153 of them died in an attack on a school. Trump said in a speech that the attacks were aimed at protecting the United States against “imminent threats” from Iran, describing them as “a vicious group of very tough, terrible people.” He claimed that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons and missile systems that could reach the United States. Polanski, who appeared on BBC’s program with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, said he was “worried” that if Starmer could not stand up to Trump, Britain would be dragged into another illegal war like the Iraq War in 2003.
“We saw what I would say was an illegal and unprovoked attack,” Polanski said. “We have a Minister of Defense who says diplomacy is the long way we need it, but we will not condemn it. Donald Trump When you attack a country and assassinate its leader.
“This is the law of the jungle. This is the end of international law. It is quite shocking that we have a Prime Minister who seems incapable of standing up to Donald Trump and getting the UK back on its feet, and I worry that the UK will be dragged into another illegal war.”
UK Defense Secretary John Healey has repeatedly refused to say whether US and Israeli attacks on Iran are legal, saying: “It is incumbent on the US to explain the legal basis for these attacks.”
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The Green Party leader said he had seen “no evidence” that the UK was taking diplomacy and negotiation with Iran seriously. He said: “The moment you refuse to negotiate you accept that you will go to war, and I don’t think the British people want to see another war in that area.”
“The question is: How do you make diplomacy and negotiation work? What I do know is that negotiation happens, whether it works is a legitimate question, but I think the answer is it doesn’t work, so we’ll bomb and kill them, the answer should be: How do we work harder to make this work, including third countries to be used to de-escalate tensions?”
“I’ve seen no evidence that the UK is really taking this process seriously, because part of the beginning of this would be to call out Donald Trump and Israel. There’s only one nuclear-armed region in this region, and that’s Israel.”
