US-Iran latest: Trump says ‘massive armada’ heading to Iran – and warns ‘time is running out’
US military intervention in Iran ‘more likely than not’, former security minister says
The presence of a US armada in the Middle East means it’s “more likely than not” Donald Trump will authorise military action in Iran, former security minister Tom Tugendhat tells Sky News.
He claims Hezbollah and Houthi militant groups, backed by Tehran, are already being warned that any retaliatory action against Washington would be dealt with as aggression by the US.
“Now, how close to taking that decision the US is, I can’t tell you, only the US can tell you that. But it certainly seems that they are not just getting battle ready, they’re getting diplomatically ready,” he says.
Tugendhat adds that he believes the protests we’ve seen in Iran over the last month “are going to lead to the overthrow of the regime, whether it’s tomorrow or in a year or in two years”.
“There’s one factor that even the Iranian theocrats can’t do anything about, and that’s that the ayatollah is 86-years-old, and 86-year-old men, I’m afraid, do have a habit of dying.”
