The head of MI6 has said the world is more dangerous than it has been in the last forty years amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and the West’s rising tensions with Russia.
Speaking at the British embassy in Paris, Sir Richard Moore also warned that Britain and its allies face a “reckoning” as a new generation of potential terrorists is radicalized by the war currently raging in the Middle East. .
Sir Moore added that the threats facing Europe “could hardly be more serious”, and warned that if the Russian president is able to reduce Ukraine to a puppet state, “he will not stop there”.
The MI6 chief said British, French, European and transatlantic security will be compromised with the cost of not supporting the war-torn country “infinitely greater” than supporting him.
“Some nations fear that if Putin wins in Ukraine, he could put pressure on countries on NATO’s eastern flank, such as the Baltic states.”
Moore spoke alongside Nicholas Lerner, head of France’s external intelligence agency, the DGSE, where both gave their first lecture at the event commemorating 120 years of the Entente Cordiale, a pact between Britain and France that merged the rivals as military and diplomatic allies. .
The former ambassador who took over as chief in October 2020 said: “In 37 years in the intelligence profession, I have never seen the world in a more dangerous state.
“And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could not be more serious.”
Speaking at the British embassy in Paris, Sir Richard Moore warned that Britain and its allies face a “reckoning” as a new generation of potential terrorists is radicalized by the war currently raging in the Middle East.
Moore added that the threats facing Europe “could hardly be more serious”, warning if the Russian president is capable of reducing Ukraine to a puppet state. In the picture: A serviceman from the 24th Mechanized Brigade named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a 2s5 ‘Hyacinth-s’ self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops on the front line.
This photograph taken and released by the National Police of Ukraine on November 29, 2024 shows a house on fire following a drone strike at an undisclosed location in the Odessa region.
Western security officials suspect that Russian intelligence is trying to destabilize Ukraine’s allies through disinformation, sabotage and arson.
Western officials have linked Moscow to several planned attacks in Europe, including an alleged plot to burn Ukrainian-owned businesses in London and the shipment of incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes.
In July, one caught fire at a courier center in Germany and another at a warehouse in England.
Lerner agreed that in Ukraine “the collective security of all of Europe is at stake.”
Britain and France have been among Ukraine’s allies that have given kyiv permission to use weapons they supply – including Scalp in France and Storm Shadow in Britain – to destroy targets deep inside Russia.
The Biden administration recently eased its opposition to using U.S.-made missiles to attack Russia, and Ukraine said last week that it had used American ATACM missiles to attack Russia for the first time in the war.
Russia has since attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a barrage of missiles and drones, in what the president claimed was retaliation for the US missile launch.
Russia then fired a new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile, called Oreshnik, and Putin quickly threatened to use it against “decision-making centers” in kyiv.
US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) seen in action
The image captures the moment Russia first used the Oreshnik to attack Dnipro, Ukraine, on November 21, 2024.
Russian T90M tank firing towards Ukrainian positions, at an undisclosed location in Russia
In Russia, Putin’s troops continue to gain ground in the eastern Donbas region and there are growing concerns that Ukrainian troops face their harshest winter in three years thanks to attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Moore said Ukraine had “the will to win” but that Britain and the West recognized they needed to “do more to help.”
“We have a war on European soil… Nicolas and I have no doubt about what is at stake in Ukraine: if Putin is allowed to succeed in reducing Ukraine to a vassal state, he will not stop there,” he added.
Regarding the conflict erupting in Gaza, Moore warned: “We have yet to fully come to terms with the radicalizing impact of the fighting, the terrible loss of innocent lives in the Middle East and the horrors of October 7.”
Moore said that “the threat of terrorism has not gone away” and after withdrawing from Syria and Iraq, ISIS again expanded its reach, launching fatal attacks in both Iran and Russia.
Former MI6 chief Sir John Sawyers, who also attended the speech in Paris, previously warned that if Islamist terror attacks on British soil return, they could have been sparked by the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
He warned that the police force in Britain, as well as its spy agencies, should be “alert” following leadership changes in the Middle East.
There is growing concern about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In the photo: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah.
Smoke rises over the southern suburbs of Beirut following an Israeli airstrike on November 26.
Civil defense teams and civilians try to rescue those trapped under the rubble following the Israeli army’s attack on the Et-Tabiin school, where displaced people took refuge in the Ed-Deraj neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza, on 27 November 2024.
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern suburbs of Beirut on November 26.
There are also fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the country holds talks in Geneva with Britain, France, Germany and the EU in a bid to find a way out of the impasse over its nuclear program before Donald Trump takes over the US presidency. next January. year.
Trump, who pursued a policy of “maximum economic pressure” against Iran during his first term, returns to the White House on January 20.
A day before the talks, Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian minister, raised tensions by saying that the EU “should abandon its self-centered and irresponsible behavior” on a number of issues, including the war in Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear issue.
Many Europeans fear that Iran’s growing reserves of highly enriched uranium reveal that it is covertly trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Iran believes Europe rejected a clear signal of willingness to negotiate when Tehran offered to limit its uranium enrichment program to 60 percent and allow experienced IAEA nuclear inspectors to return to Iran.
Moore said the risk of Iranian nuclear proliferation was expected to be the “most critical threat” in the coming months and that the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions “continue to threaten us all” despite the series of blows dealt in recent months. to the allied militias of Tehran. throughout the Middle East.