The former chief of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service has said Iran has the upper hand in its war with Israel and the US.
“The reality is the US underestimated the task and I think as of about two weeks ago lost the initiative to Iran,” Sir Alex Younger, who ran the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service from 2014 to 2020, told the Economist in a podcast interview.
“In practice, the Iranian regime has been more resilient than I think anyone would have expected,” Younger said.
“They took some good decisions – as early as last June – about dispersing their military capability and delegating the authority for the use of those weapons, which has given them significant extra resilience against this incredibly powerful air campaign.”
The UK’s former spy chief said that US Donald Trump “has said some stuff” that will have confirmed to Iran that “they’re in a civilisational war… they’re in a war of existence”.
Read more: Former head of UK’s MI6 says Iran has ‘upper hand’ in war with US and Israel
