Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali joins pro-Tehran demonstration in London

Zack Polanski has called on Keir Starmer to condemn the strikes on Iran after branding the US and Israel ‘rogue states’.

Appearing on BBC‘s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, the Green Party leader said: ‘I need to see the Prime Minister get out on TV and condemn these illegal and unprovoked strikes.

‘I need to see the Prime Minister talk about de-escalation, and I need to see a disentanglement of this country with the military, with the US, which I think is pulling us into a more dangerous position.’

Mr Polanski, whose deputy was seen at a pro-Tehran rally at the weekend, said he had seen ‘no evidence’ the Labour government was taking diplomacy and negotiation seriously with Iran – which the US and Israel have accused of secretly developing a nuclear weapon.

‘What I know is negotiation was happening, whether it was working or not is a legitimate question, but I don’t think the answer can be, “It’s not working, so we’re going to bomb and kill them”,’ he said. 

 ‘The answer has to be: “How do we work harder to make it work, including third countries to use to de-escalate?”

‘I’ve seen no evidence that the UK was really taking that process seriously, because part of the start of that would be to call out Donald Trump and Israel. There is only one region in that area with a nuclear weapon, and that’s Israel.’

Writing online on Saturday, Mr Polanski said: ‘This is an illegal, unprovoked and brutal attack that shows once again that the USA and Israel are rogue states. The UK must end our cosy relationship with the USA and our… support for Israel’.

Members of the Iranian and Israeli communities joined together in north London on Saturday night to celebrate the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But Mr Polanski’s deputy Mothin Ali was pictured at a protest in support of the destabilised Iranian regime on Saturday.

The Greens leader was last year urged to sack Mr Ali after his deputy defended Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Commenting on Mr Ali’s appearance at the rally, former security minister Tom Tugendhat accused the Green Party of standing ‘with those who murder young Iranians seeking a better life and freedom’.

Commenting on Mr Ali’s appearance at the rally, former security minister Tom Tugendhat accused the Green Party of standing ‘with those who murder young Iranians seeking a better life and freedom’.

Mr Ali said: ‘You can’t bomb a democracy into existence – the US and its proxies should have learned that lesson by now.’

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