Imagine a house in which smoke rises steadily from the cellar. The smell is unmistakable. The floorboards begin to grow warm beneath the feet. A few occupants, uneasy at the creeping haze, point out that something below may be burning.

But the master of the house insists that no such conclusion can yet be drawn. The smoke must first be properly investigated. Perhaps the flames have been exaggerated. Perhaps someone else started the fire. Perhaps, above all, any attempt to extinguish it might violate the house rules.

Meanwhile those gathered comfortably in the drawing room argue over who should apologise for mentioning the smoke in the first place.

This, in essence, is the present condition of Britain’s debate about Iran.

The Islamic Republic – a regime whose hostility to the West is neither subtle nor newly discovered – has spent decades exporting terror, cultivating militias and financing ideological warfare far beyond its borders. Its agents intimidate dissidents abroad. Its proxies destabilise entire regions. Its leaders regularly indulge in theatrical threats against........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)