Us-iran conflict would be ‘worse’ than the Iraq war

A full-blown conflict between the US and Iran with Donald Trump in charge as president could prove to be worse than the war in Iraq, a senior Labour MP has warned.

Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, said the UK risked being drawn into a conflict between Iran and the US as Mr Trump’s “sidekick”.

Comparing the deteriorating situation to the build-up to the Iraq war, he said Boris Johnson and Mr Trump could act in concert in the same way as Tony Blair and George W. Bush did.

He called for the next Prime Minister to focus on “de-escalation” and “conflict resolution” rather than allowing the UK to become “messengers” for the US administration. “If we end up in a conflict backed by Donald Trump, then I think it would not only be comparable with Iraq, in fact it could be even worse than Iraq, and that should really scare everybody,” Mr Burgon told Sky’s Sophy Ridge programme.

He added: “We need sensible negotiations. We’ve got a really important part to play diplomatically in this. I think that our Government has international respect and this country has international respect in a way that Donald Trump doesn’t.

“I think we need to use that for the purposes of conflict resolution and for the purposes of making sure this doesn’t escalate out of control.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the US president of fuelling the confrontation by “tearing up” the Iran nuclear deal, while Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, said the UK “must cease being an accessory to economic terrorism of the US”.