THE world is suddenly a far more dangerous place owing to Barack Obama’s, David Cameron’s and others’ willingness to be duped by the treacherous Iranian government which, following recent superpower talks, have consolidated its perceived right to continue enriching uranium.

Of course, the Iranian authorities insist that their purpose in doing this is merely for the innocent goal of producing electricity.

The Iranians have also gloated that they have always been able to pull the wool over the eyes of Western leaders. This is exactly what they have done once again.

No one seriously doubts that the programme of enrichment is intended to produce weapons-grade uranium and result in the regime’s obtaining the atomic bomb.

Desperate to believe in the moderation of Hassan Rouhani, Western negotiators have now eased the sanctions on a regime that has a historic record of duplicity and misinformation and is currently knee-deep in Syrian blood.

Under the recent disastrous agreement, Tehran will be allowed to keep both its heavy water reactor in Arak and thousands of centrifuges – key elements for military (not civilian) nuclear production.

Despite the charm offensive of the new Iranian president, Iran is still the same totalitarian state it has been since 1979: a backward, messianic theocracy denying civil rights and basic freedoms to its people and under the total control of the fundamentalist ayatollahs.

No doubt the Western powers believe that they can control the Iranian threat through deterrence guaranteed by our overwhelming fire power. Perhaps. But a direct Iranian nuclear attack on the West is not imminent or even likely in the foreseeable future.

Such an attack on Israel however is a distinct possibility, especially when we consider Iran’s oft-repeated vow to wipe Israel off the map. Well, the Israelis already possess nuclear weapons and I suppose we must reckon that they can look after themselves. That is not the immediate problem.

The crisis into which this catastrophic error of judgement on the part of the West has precipitated the whole of the Middle East is the frightening threat of a nuclear arms race. The civil war in Syria is but one example of the recent flare up in the 1,000-yearold conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslim sects.

This war is being prosecuted all across North Africa, in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Pakistan. The principal contenders in the Middle East are the regional superpowers Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran. The rivalry between them is bitter and they are at daggers drawn.

No one should be surprised if the Saudis now embark on their own nuclear weapons programme in the interests of self-defence.

These two deadly rivals for regional supremacy might easily and suddenly involve the whole of the Middle East in a disastrous conflagration. And there is no guarantee that the war could be confined to that region.

It is said that President Obama, in his second and final term, has his eyes on his socalled “legacy” – that he would like to be remembered as the man who repaired the US’s relationship with Iran and promoted world peace. He has gone entirely the wrong way about it. Shamefully, he has appeased Iran.

Appeasement never succeeds in preventing war. It is the duty of statesmen to guard the interests of their people. Ours have failed – perhaps apocalyptically.