I don’t want to see an open conflict with Iran. I don’t want to see another hot front open up in our continuing war to change the political face of the Middle East in our efforts against militant Islamic terrorists.

International tensions are best dealt with through peaceful diplomacy--except, of course, when they can’t be. Unfortunately, there are still some factions in the Middle East who believe that the West is not serious about the need for our relationship to be fundamentally altered; the dynamic that held through the 80’s and 90’s is no longer acceptable.

The West--at least, the Anglosphere--is serious about asserting our need for security and for the prosecution of the Global War on Terror (an ungainly title, but at least reasonably accurate) throughout the Middle East. In recent decades, until those post-Reagan years, our struggle against communism was deemed to be the most important foreign policy goal, but between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the aggressive agenda of Islamic terrorists, our priorities have changed.

The leadership of Iran doesn’t seem to have read that memo, though.

Not realising the sensitivity that Mr Straw attaches to Britain’s dealings with Teheran, the unfortunate diplomat unwittingly strayed from his referendum brief and started laying into the Iranians with a gusto not seen in the British diplomatic service for decades. The Iranians, said the diplomat, were colluding with Sunni Muslim insurgent groups in southern Iraq. They were providing them with deadly terrorist technology that has been perfected by the Iranian-funded Hizbollah militia in southern Lebanon against the Israeli army. And their motivation was to deter Britain from insisting that Teheran abandon its controversial nuclear programme. “It would be entirely natural that they would want to send a message ‘don’t mess with us’. It would not be outside the policy parameters of Teheran.”

This is diplomat-speak for, if Britain wants to confront Iran over its nuclear weapons programme, then Iran feels entitled to blow up young British soldiers.

The off-message tone of the unnamed diplomat’s comments sent shock-waves through the oak-panelled walls of the Foreign Office. “It was all very amusing,” said one official. “For years diplomats have been under strict instructions not to say anything in public that might upset the Iranians. And then someone gives it to them straight between the eyes.”

There is no doubt that America and the UK don’t want a showdown with Iran right now and there is no doubt that everyone would prefer that normal diplomatic channels would suffice to handle the tensions. But, as my grandpa used to say, wishing doesn’t make so.

The challenge to our leadership isn’t to be arrogant or mindlessly aggressive; the challenge to our leaders is to recognize necessity and act accordingly. Iran is waging war against the Coalition and against Iraqi sovereignty, and our necessity is defined from that bedrock fact.

Read the story.