THERE is mounting evidence that the United States, Britain and key players in Europe all played a role in Israel’s attack on Iran.

I am no supporter of the Iranian regime, but I am even less in favour of any country that bullies their way around the world. The idea that any country can or will give in to threats that amount to “negotiate with us or we will kill you” is beyond ridiculous.

No country can do that. If they did, then they would lose all legitimacy at home — however it had been obtained — and give the green light to all authoritarian powers in the world to carry out the same tactic.

US President Donald Trump claims that his administration played no part in the attack by the Israelis on Iran, but bragged on his personal social media site that “he knows everything” and that Israel used weapons provided by his administration and that he intended to provide many more.

It barely needed the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to say that the attack on his country could not have taken place without the agreement and support of the US.

Speaking from Tehran on Sunday, Araghchi said: “We have well-documented and solid evidence of the support provided by American forces in the region and their bases for the military attacks of the zionist regime.”

He said the admission by Trump makes “the US, in our opinion, a partner in these attacks and must accept its responsibility.”

The Iranians clearly do not believe the messages they say they have received from Washington through various intermediaries that it was not involved with Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in Isfahan’s Natanz, but it “does not believe this claim” due to evidence to the contrary.

Some observers have accused Britain of being involved in refuelling Israeli aircraft after their attacks on Iran. The Russian ambassador to the United Nations directly accused Britain of being involved — something fiercely denied by the British.

But the noises of hostility from Britain and its European allies about Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons programme were ramped up in the days before the Israeli attack was launched.

Seems to be far from a coincidence that no sooner had the rhetoric been ramped up than the Israelis attacked.

Neither is it a coincidence that the attack comes a week after the Iranians claimed to have “obtained” significant secrets of the Israeli nuclear programme.

The tyrants in Tel Aviv plan to drag the US and other compliant Western powers into a war with Iran. They need this because they do not have the resources to sustain a war with Iran on their own.

To achieve its aim, Tel Aviv needed to scupper any possibility of a deal during the sixth round of nuclear negotiations, which should have taken place on Sunday.

But the Iranians were sucked into trusting that the US was negotiating in good faith.

I used to earn my living as a trade union negotiator — admittedly not a great one. But any negotiator will tell you that it is impossible to negotiate with anyone not prepared to negotiate with you in good faith.

The Iranians made the mistake of believing the US, a country that rarely keeps to any deal that it makes and routinely lies as easily as the sun rises each morning.

They also made the mistake of believing that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was also acting in good faith.

As I have reported in these pages, the Iranians have repeatedly made it clear that the IAEA was not carrying out its role in an even-handed way.

Perhaps like many, I did not take this to mean that the IAEA was, as it has emerged, passing information directly to Tel Aviv, including the names and personal details of scientists and academics who have since been assassinated.

The Iranians had no choice but to cooperate with the IAEA, but if they knew this duplicitous behaviour was taking place, then why not end the relationship and take steps to protect their people?

Instead, the attack carried out by the Israelis can be equated to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. It was a surprise and an unlawful sneaky attack.

Israel claims that its attacks are aimed at military targets. But there is ample video evidence that residential areas have come under heavy attack, resulting in multiple civilian deaths.

Multiple top-ranking commanders of the Iranian armed forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were assassinated alongside nuclear scientists and university professors.

During its war on the Palestinians in Gaza, the Israelis have claimed that they have been “forced” to attack hospitals, schools and residential areas because Hamas has been using them as human shields.

Yet the Israelis themselves have released footage showing at least one military base underneath a hospital. Presumably, because, of course, double standards do apply, if and when the Iranians attack these sites, the corporate media will be full of stories about the wicked Iranians with as much venom as they have ignored the genocide in Gaza.

The Tel Aviv regime, which is more used to killing women and children — as they have done to tens of thousands of Gazans — is now bringing death and destruction home.

There will be awful reports of casualties and damage caused by both sides in what looks likely to be a prolonged period of air attacks.

One danger is that as the Israelis become more desperate, seeing that they can’t bully or defeat the Iranians, they may resort to what is known as the Samson Option, namely the use of the nuclear weapons it has never openly admitted to having.

The option is widely believed to be the “last resort” that Israel will deploy if the country is facing military defeat, has been invaded or much of the nation has been destroyed.

This is a real and present danger, and it would also be a mistake to see this as being an attack on Iran alone.

This is also an attack on the global South as a whole and any notion that a new multilateral world is possible. This is a message — one I have warned would happen — that this is what will happen if any of you dare to step out of line.

We must give maximum support to uphold the sovereignty of Iran because, in the end, it’s also about the sovereignty of the global South and its determination to build a new multilateral world free from the warmongers.

Wars only ever serve the interests of the ruling class — never the working class and peasants of the world.

Only international solidarity and collective organisation can and will defeat the tyrants of the Western clique.