Letters | The consequences of pacifism

War is a terrible outcome anywhere and only if the consequences of diplomacy would be considerably worse can any war be justified. In response to Mohamed Saeed’s letter, there are just a few questions I would like answered: Would a nuclear and ballistic missile armed Iranian regime be any better for the Middle East, Iran or the world? After lengthy and extensive talks Iran has refused to hand over their 60% enriched uranium and to close their missile factories and an extremist autocracy with nukes and a grudge against the world makes nuclear war inevitable.

And please don’t try and claim Iran’s nuclear ambitions were only peaceful, nuclear electricity reactors only need three to five percent enriched uranium, 60% is only a short step away from weapons grade fissile material. Also Iran with nuclear weapons is a serious threat to neighbouring Gulf States as in the current war as Iran has fired many more missiles and drones at the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia than at Israel. Not to mention the 30 000+ Iranian civilians the Iranian regime has murdered. Diplomacy is impossible with any dictatorship that funds worldwide extremists who are not afraid of killing their own people or themselves being killed to remain in power.