Former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps has said he strongly backs the Prime Minister’s stance on Iran following its missile attacks on Israel.
He told GB News: “I strongly welcome the Prime Minister’s stance on this. I was a bit concerned given, prior to yesterday the Government had been sort of tacking away from its support, I thought, for Israel.
“In the end, it’s the only democracy in the region and they’re under attack from all sides. But actually all roads lead to Tehran.
“Whether they’re under attack from Hamas or Hezbollah in Lebanon, or the Houthis in Yemen, or indeed Iran itself, it’s always Iran that’s behind it.
“Yesterday we saw Iran launch those attacks. I’m very pleased actually to see that the British RAF were involved in defending the only democracy in the Middle East.
“So, I’ll say it as it is. I think the Prime Minister has done the right thing. I was calling for that last night, and I’m relieved to see that’s what’s happened.
“I really want to see peace in the Middle East. I spent a lot of time out there as Defence Secretary, meeting a lot of different leaders there. And of course, you don’t want it to escalate.
“The world probably has to address the fact that Iran is stirring up these proxies in every single direction and everyone is fed up with Iran creating this instability in the region, including the moderate Arab states.
“Countries like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates or Jordan or Egypt are equally as fed up with Iran creating these problems.
“Probably we do need to actually address that elephant in the room, Iran with nuclear weapons, and if aided and abetted by Putin, by another dictator, then that is really very concerning and perhaps we can’t afford to continue to ignore that any longer.”
WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE