00:00Your father has posted a tribute on social media to the Ayatollah, a man who has killed thousands of civilians.
00:07Do you agree with him and have you spoken to him about it?
00:09He's wrong. My view is that the leader of Iran has been a brutal dictator that has obviously done many
00:20bad things to his own citizens,
00:22has threatened many of his neighbours, has funded countless attacks, has been behind several threats to our own country here.
00:32And I think there will be lots of people who have very strong views about what he was like as
00:38an individual or what that regime was like.
00:40In terms of the broader situation, look, this is a really dangerous time.
00:46It's a dangerous time, of course, for Iran itself, but it's a dangerous time for the entire region.
00:52And what needs to happen really quickly is a de-escalation, an end to the war.
00:58That means no nuclear capability for Iran, of course, but it also means freedom and peace and security for all
01:05the nations across the broader Middle East.
01:07And that has to be our urgent priority.
01:09So I think it's right that the UK wasn't involved in any offensive action.
01:14And the reason why I stress that is whilst we all have strong views about the Iranian regime,
01:20I think there is a nervousness about what the actions and the aftermath of the actions will mean for many
01:28of the neighbours,
01:29many of whom were not even involved in the offensive action, taking UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, that are now seeing missile
01:36fire as a result.
01:38And so we do have a duty to make sure we are protecting our allies, protecting our infrastructure and protecting
01:44our citizens in these nations and beyond.
01:47So supporting defensive operations, I think, is the right thing to do, but it's also right that the UK is
01:53not part of any offensive action.
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