Iran is at heart of every problem in the Middle East – we must stockpile weapons, says Defence Sec

Iran is at heart of every problem in the Middle East – we must stockpile weapons, says Defence Sec

we saw that ceasefire uh and hostage exchange a long time ago now which eventually broke down you know it this is now gone on for many many months you still got those hostages um being held uh as has been said there’s actually a very generous offer when you think about it uh you’d get uh a few dozen hostages released in return uh a 40-day ceasefire thousands of Palestinians released and an opportunity to build from that more importantly into the permanent Seas Spire that everybody wants to see to get the humanitarian Aid in and bring this thing to a close so uh quite a big offer being made we now wait to see where Hamas go on this but we know that um Benjamin Netanyahu is being told by members of his own cabinet that to accept a peace deal that to not invade Rafa uh would be a capitulation would be showing in their words the White Flag I mean what’s your message to for start the issue with Israel government is it’s a coalition and it’s a big rainbow of very very uh uh desperate views so I mean of course you’ll always find someone who says this or don’t do that or do this I think you know given the level of human suffering on on uh you know from this conflict which of course started with a terrorist organization going and slaughtering um people and then everything that’s happened since you know bringing this to a a conclusion is absolutely essential it’s in uh obviously the Palestinian people’s interest it’s in Israel’s interest it’s in the world’s interest to see that um happen uh and uh you know the the the roote to that is by releasing hostages the thing which started all of this why is there a need to build a Brand New Port I mean it seems like an extraordinarily complicated no doubt very expensive way to get Aid in Israel has existing ports has you know why yeah well so I should explain it’s it’s a pier rather than a port so effectively it’s a temporary uh e extension from a ship that creates the things is not a full Pier I think psychologically the difficulty for Israel has been these Gates uh into Gaza were used for Hamas to break out of Gaza and go and murder uh Israelis In Cold Blood and then you’ve got a situation where we’re all saying to Israel look could you just reopen those Gates and now send in Aid through the same Gates that we used to for terrorists to come out and murder you and I think that has been quite psychologically difficult for Israel the public in Israel to Bear but I think it’s critically important how worried are you that what’s happening in the Middle East could spiral into a wider War well frankly it’s been my concern since October the 7th I mean that has been the number one thing and I think actually when you saw what the Iranian attack of hundreds of drones ballistic and cruise missiles uh the other week um I think the fear for the world at that moment was that Israel might react and even over uh size their response in a manner that could have led to now a regional conflict which was bigger uh we obviously all spoke to our Israeli opposite numbers and I think the Israeli response was precise and exact and actually a more mature response which has prevented this from spiraling into the next stage which I think you know on that Saturday night wasn’t it when Iran fired for the first time at at Israel uh after all of these Decades of of saber rattling rattling I think it was very possible to imagine this would have evolved in a far worse way in the in the weeks since so Israel actually I think acted very responsibly very precise I mean of course Iran will pretend nothing was was hit we know that wasn’t the case nonetheless uh very much welcome that it hasn’t led to the next uh you know extension of this of this regional conflict do you think that risk has now passed are we through the moment of of high I anyone who can predict the Middle East is is you know is is an incredible uh uh profit I would say because you know the one thing we know about this region is it’s a difficult neighborhood um to be in uh the other thing I know for certain is Iran is the heart of absolutely every problem you know the three hes the terrorist groups of Hamas Hezbollah the hotis all sponsored trained funded by Iran their uh Iran aligned militia groups who you know fire on uh uh well anyone who they they they don’t like essentially again great instability and then Iran themselves firing hundreds of projectiles they are at the heart of the problem and what’s really interesting when I speak to my uh Middle East uh opposite numbers whether in Israel or the Arab states the in the Gulf States they all agree that Iran is at the heart of the the problem they are the massive instability in that area in that region and uh it’s really important that we’re clear about that and I thought very interestingly when Iran did fire at Israel quietly and without great Fanfare uh it was quite clear that the rest of the Arab world didn’t agree with what Iran was doing in this pre-war environment that you talk about what are you going to buy and does the UK need an Iron Dome missile defense like Israel has and has used so well so far so first of all in terms of what we’re going to buy I will set out a lot of the things that uh actually I’ll be completely upfront with you a lot of this is to make sure we can deliver the things that we always said we wanted to do properly but there are extra things that we want to do so Munitions I mean this war in Ukraine has absolutely shown that the world doesn’t have enough stock piles we’re going to add to our existing plans for Munitions with another billion pounds a year over the next 10 years so I was at the um Storm Shadow uh Factory on on Thursday um seeing those storm Shadows that have been so significant uh to to the the world uh with the you know to our Ukrainian um friends us along with other countries have provided these long range missiles but we want a lot more of them on stockpile we need that for our own safety and to defend the the the West so stockpiles are going to be a big part of it I’m afraid you will probably have to wait a little bit for the rest of my announcement but I’ll tell you where my priorities are I really believe in recruiting and retaining our brave Armed Forces I want them to have a better deal so their housing their accommodation that accommodation big uplift in the quality of that I’ve put 4 billion pounds aside from the package to to to do more of of that and then you ask about an Iron Dome sort of thing of course that attracted great interest because Israel were using it to shoot down the Iranian missiles um so first of all there’s a regional context to this Israel as we’ve discussed were in a difficult neighborhood we are a not in that neighborhood but B more importantly have the cover of uh NATO now NATO’s article says in our case that 31 other countries come to our immediate defense by law if we are attacked so you would be insane to fire missiles at us in the in the same way that’s the first thing the second thing to say is of course we have the ultimate declared deterrent which is the nuclear deterrent again you’d be rather crazy to kind of kind of come after the UK and um importantly but often not discussed we actually already have a system of layered protection include something uh which is called the the the quick response the qra which is where to prevent a 911 type attack uh we have typhoons ready to scramble and as defense secretary and the Prime Minister and others we’re 24 hours on duty uh to provide executive orders on that we have also a Skys saber system which is a missile system to take down incoming and a number of other things I can’t go into having said all of that in this rather long answer we’re also working with our European Neighbors on what a European Sky Shield might look like as well and we’re we’re in the early stages of work on on that as well but for all sorts of reasons we’re not in that sort of Israeli situation where actually Hamas we’re already firing rockets at Israel on a daily basis hundreds thousands of them each year and so were Lebanese Hezbollah so they had a rather more pressing need uh not being in NATO as well to to have those things in place

Iran is at heart of every problem in the Middle East – we must stockpile weapons, says Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.

Speaking exclusively on The Sun’s brand new defence show ‘World at War’, Grant Shapps slammed Iran’s involvement in conflict in the middle east.

Read more:
Grant Shapps calls on Israel to ‘flood Gaza with aid’ and end conflict
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27671410/grant-shapps-israel-gaza-aid/

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