The Times of London claims a world exclusive today with a report saying the paper has obtained secret documentation which proves that Iran is working on a nuclear bomb.

According to the Times: “The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme.”

And, the paper continues: “The technical document describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which independent experts confirm has no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. Uranium deuteride is the material used in Pakistan’s bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.”

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In a jaw-dropping speech to the Anglo-Israel Association earlier this week, Andrew Roberts, one of Britain’s most prominent historians, made reference to one particular British boycott of Israel that is mentioned far too rarely: The Foreign Office has a ban in place on the Royal Family making official visits.

The speech came at a dinner (which I attended) on Tuesday evening in a swanky London hotel. It is an annual affair which is designed to bring together senior figures in the British establishment with supporters of Israel. Many in attendance were literally open-mouthed as Roberts tore in to the record of the UK Foreign Office over Israel. Melanie Phillips has a transcript of the full speech, the link to which is at the end of this article.

But it was his hilarious elucidation of the royal boycott that really caught everyone’s attention. Here is what Roberts said:

“One area of policy over which the FO [Foreign Office] has traditionally held great sway is in the question of Royal Visits. It is therefore no coincidence that although HMQ [Her Majesty the Queen] has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129 different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member of the British royal family has ever been to Israel on an official visit. Even though Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece, who was recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” for sheltering a Jewish family in her Athens home during the Holocaust, was buried on the Mount of Olives, the Duke of Edinburgh was not allowed by the FO [Foreign Office] to visit her grave until 1994, and then only on a private visit.”

And, he continued:

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What on earth is going on in Great Britain? Earlier this week, the Foreign Office emerged as the strongest supporter in Europe of an almost unbelievably reckless proposal from Sweden — which holds the EU’s rotating presidency — for a European Union resolution on the Middle East which would have recognised, in advance of any negotiations, East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. Worse still, it called for the EU to recognise a Palestinian state should the Palestinians declare one unilaterally.

Any such moves would have so incensed the Israelis that the EU would, in all likelihood, have been excluded from any future role in peace talks. It even risked undermining the peace process by encouraging the Palestinians to believe that the EU would rubber stamp a declaration of statehood regardless of their approach to negotiations. Why bother holding serious talks with Israel if a member of the MidEast quartet has already said you’ll get what you want in advance? Mind blowing.

Fortunately, the resolution was watered down somewhat. But we have reached a pretty pass when the British Foreign Office has become so overcome with anti-Israeli hysteria that it is prepared to take measures which threaten the very peace agreement that the government has always said it supported. Make no mistake about it, the UK foreign policy establishment is thus working against the UK’s own national interests.

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I suppose it is to be welcomed that EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels today passed what amounts to only a watered down version of the initial proposal being pressed for by Sweden, the country which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

So given that the ministers rejected plans to offer recognition to a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood, we might perhaps be grateful for small mercies. Nonetheless, the resolution that was in fact passed still demonstrates an almost complete inability to understand Israel’s predicament in the Middle East while continuing to peddle distortions about what is really going on that can only serve as an obstacle to peace. The complete absence of any reference to terrorism or Hamas is simply extraordinary.

Here is the text of the resolution followed by my brief comments after each of the 12 articles of which it is constituted:

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Over dinner in London with an American friend from the Washington think tank community the other night, I found myself mouthing words about Barack Obama that I’m no longer sure I can keep repeating while simultaneously retaining any sense of self respect. “Cynical, but not hostile,” was how I characterised my views of the 44th president.

Part of my defence would certainly centre on the argument that after eight years in which my fellow Brits and Europeans ditched sober and reasoned analysis of Obama’s predecessor in favour of something little better than an ad hominem hate fest, I’ll be damned if I’m going to fall into the same trap. And I won’t.

But after the selling out of central and eastern Europe to Putin’s Russia over missile defence, the contorted and self-defeating speech on Afghanistan last week, and the administration’s farcical handling of Iran’s nuclear programme, it is becoming increasingly impossible to avoid the conclusion that we might well have another Jimmy Carter on our hands after all.

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