But Nasser Kanaani, a spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “The declaration by France, Germany and Britain, which raised no objection to international crimes of the Zionist regime, brazenly asks Iran to take no deterrent action against a regime which has violated its sovereignty.”
In the aftermath of the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, the Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran would “never give in to pressure, to sanctions and to bullying, and considers it has the right to respond”.
During one of her trips to Iran, Ms Perez-Shakdam was told about a plot by the regime to “map out” key individuals and organisations in the Jewish diaspora to mark them out for assassinations and attacks. This intelligence was later confirmed by the then security minister Tom Tugendhat.
The “number one” aim of the regime was to “force Jews to leave, to go to Israel, because it’s easier to hit them there in one place”. And secondly to “create a narrative against Jews that their very existence is a danger to your [country’s] national security, therefore you should kick them out”, she said.
“At the time, I was thinking, ‘No one is ever going to buy this. And then, you fast forward to 2024 and you hear things like, ‘They don’t belong here, they should go home’.”
Ms Perez-Shakdam, who is now the executive director of the campaign group We Believe in Israel, said the Iranian regime is using Israel as a Trojan Horse as it is easier to sell an anti-Israel narrative “but really this is the way into its anti-Western message”.
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