Former detainee Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is one of more than 100 Iranians living in the UK who have called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to get drawn further into the US-Israel war with Iran.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was a political prisoner in Iran's Evin jail for six years, signed a letter to Mr Starmer which said that although they hoped for democracy in Iran, the current conflict could further embed the regime.
“Nobody can claim to want the end of the Islamic republic more than we do,” the letter seen by The Guardian says. “But attacking the country in this way will have the opposite effect. It will entrench the authoritarians and give life to the fiction that has sustained them internally for decades: that they are fighting western imperialism.”
The letter sets out ways the UK can help the Iranian opposition, including those in prison, such as by providing Starlink satellite internet to end the communications blackout inside Iran.
It was also signed by other former political prisoners including Aras Amiri, a former British Council worker who spent three years in Evin, and Nasrin Parvaz, who was incarcerated for eight years from 1982.
Mr Starmer initially refused to join the US-Israeli strikes on Iran that began on February 28, but later said the UK would play a role defending Gulf allies who came under attack.
The Israeli air strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had given him a “martyr-ending” rather than holding him accountable for his crimes, the letter said.
“When [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu – a man charged with international war crimes after killing countless civilians in Gaza – assassinates Iran’s dictator, that kills the man but immortalises the myth. Iranians wanted him tried and punished for his crimes, not given the martyr-ending he craved,” it said.
The signatories said they were “overcome with grief”. “For decades we have been hoping for the day when Iranian democracy can finally flourish. Many of us have not been able to visit Iran for years for fear of imprisonment or worse.”
They were also concerned about the fate of Iran’s political prisoners and called for a “pro-democracy policy” to protect them and others caught in the crossfire.
“A pro-democracy policy would protect political prisoners and ensure that Israel and the US do not bomb prisons like Evin. It is in those cells where the future democratic leaders of Iran reside,” they wrote.
“A pro-democracy policy would smuggle internet devices – not weapons – across the border, and break the blackout that is blanketing the country. A pro-democracy policy would call out Israel’s assassination policy even when it targets leaders we despise,” they said.
The UK was at risk of joining Mr Netanyahu’s “forever wars”, the letter said. “There is so much that can be done in solidarity with Iranians. But joining in with Netanyahu’s forever wars is not it.”
