Editorial: ​Donald Trump has not made it easy for UK to back the US in face of huge, and complex, Iranian threat

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the fanatical Islamic regime in Tehran has been a repressive and murderous one.​

Not only does it impose ultra conservative social laws, that in the western world would be unthinkable, it has sponsored terrorism abroad since Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the shah. The Iranian menace in the case of the tiny state of Israel represents an existential threat.

It is one thing, however, to say that the Iranian regime is vile and that it must not secure a nuclear bomb, it is quite another to know how to go about it. While there has plainly been a case for the sort of targeted strikes that America and Israel carried out last year in order to halt or slow the Iranian nuclear programme, the present war has been much less clear cut.

Britain has been a steadfast ally of the United States for more than a century, and the special relationship endures – comments by President Donald Trump, his vice-president JD Vance and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio have made clear their view that America is proud of its long historical connections with Britain and even the Scots Ulster links.

At the same time, President Trump has been wildly erratic in his commentary on allies such as the UK and Canada. He has fluctuated in whether or not friendly nations get lighter treatment in his tariff plans, while at other times speaking warmly of the leaders of countries like Russia and China who are rivals of the west, and the values we hold dear, if not enemies.

President Trump on his own got Europe to spend more on its defence, but his incendiary commentary on the Iran war, including indeed the indiscretion of his remarks at a time of great peril, has made it far harder for America to get the western support it needs in confronting the huge, but complex, Iranian threat, in ways that don’t result in the economic chaos we are now seeing.