Iran has just reached another stage in its terrifying war against the West

Telegraph

6 hours ago

As the Middle East collectively holds its breath to wait and see if the much-lauded ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds, the west must now be braced for the inevitable Iranian reaction to its month of humiliation at the hands of Israel and the US.
Iran's options for such retribution are now diminished, having much of its conventional military capabilities decimated by the recent Israeli strikes – including much of its ballistic missile stocks being shot down over Israeli airspace.
Increasingly the Iranians will come to rely once more on its unconventional capabilities: namely, their proxies across the wider Middle East and north Africa region.
Whilst its traditional forces including Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen have been much diminished, the Houthis in particular can readily be redeployed with Iranian tactical control once more to threaten the shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
This will naturally cause financial stocks to jitter and cause global instability. This is what the Iranians thrive in, but they may choose to be more cautious: they wouldn't want to upset their budding partner China, which imports over 45 per cent of its oil through those waters.
Far more likely are new and emerging proxy forces, or those that have yet to gain the same international notoriety as the Shia militias in Iraq. One such group in particular is emerging at speed to sow instability and terror in north Africa – the Polisario Front.
A Marxist militia backed by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, the Polisario Front is a terrorist organisation that launches attacks against Morocco in the name of freedom for the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Administrated by Morocco since a UN-mandated ceasefire in 1991, Morocco enjoys the support of the US, France, and now the UK too in its administration of the territory.
Its leader praised Hamas' terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 2023, expresses ideological solidarity with Iran's 'axis of resistance', and envisages a unified front stretching from Iran and the Golan Heights to Gaza and Western Sahara.
They have been armed with missiles and rockets by the Iranian regime for several years; last week they used this to attack civilians next to a UN camp in Morocco.
Plans to attack the Israeli embassy in Morocco, meanwhile, have been foiled – and it's not a step too far to imagine plots to attack the significant British interests in the region as part of the group's increasing terror alliance with Iran and their other proxies.
Make no mistake: the UK is also firmly in the Iranian ayatollah's crosshairs for revenge, despite the UK Government being forced to sit on the sidelines of this war by an increasingly distrustful Washington and Tel Aviv.
The time has come for the West to finally act. In Washington last week legislators from both sides of the House acted to proscribe the group as a terrorist organisation. The UK must now follow.
Having recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, the UK must support both its ally Morocco, our partner the US, and our own national security interests by proscribing the Polisario Front as a terrorist organisation.