Liam Fox says military force must remain an option in 2010's confrontation with Iran

In an interview with today's Sunday Telegraph, Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox warns that 2010 is the year in which Iran's nuclear ambitions must be confronted. Unlike the Government which rules out force, Dr Fox says that the military option must remain on the table.

Highlights from Dr Fox's interview with Sean Rayment:

The terrorist nature of the Iranian regime: "Iran is a regime that seems intent on staying in office at any cost, including the death, disappearance and torture of its own nationals and they are embarked on a programme which the UN says can be for no other purpose than to develop a nuclear weapon capability. We know that Iran, more than any other country, is willing to export instability and terror as part of its foreign policy. We saw what they did when we were in Iraq. The Iranians funded some of the insurgency and supplied and trained them. We have seen their role with Hizbollah and Hamas."

Iran could trigger a nuclear arms race across the region: "Do we really want to add nuclear material into that particular mix? If Iran becomes a nuclear-weaponed state, Turkey is likely to be next, quickly followed by Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and you will have a nuclear arms race in the world's most unstable region. We have only just finished celebrating 20-years of the end of the Cold War, do we really want to have as our legacy to the next generation a nuclear arms race in the world's most unstable place? That's the decision we face."

All options must be considered in order to stop Iran: "We need to make it very clear to Iran that a nuclear weapon capability will not be tolerated by the international community and that nothing is off the table (in terms of military action). 2010 is the year in which we will seriously have to confront Iran. We have to say that everything remains on the table – if you play a public game of "what if" that just helps the Iranians by knowing what our next move would be."

Tim Montgomerie