Trump’s Iran threats could cause ‘confrontation with major powers involved’, warns UK foreign office minister

Alistair Burt criticises 'if language is ramped up and is seen to be aggressive' adding: 'A potential confrontation with major powers being involved is only an incident away'

A Foreign Office minister has criticised Donald Trump’s latest aggressive threats towards Iran, warning they make a major “confrontation” more likely.

Alistair Burt also insisted the UK would stand firm against Washington’s pressure to abandon the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and continue to pursue progress in “a different way”.

The comments came after the US president told the UN general assembly: “Iran's leaders sow chaos, death and destruction.

“They do not respect their neighbours or borders or the sovereign rights of nations. Instead, Iran's leaders plunder the nation's resources to enrich themselves and spread mayhem across the Middle East and far beyond.”

Mr Trump added: “We cannot allow a regime that chants ‘death to America’ and that threatens Israel with annihilation, to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on earth. We just can’t do it.”

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, warned Iran there would be “hell to pay” if it continued to “cross” the US and its allies.

Asked about the comments, Mr Burt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “We believe it's best to engage with them and seek to affect changes in behaviour and that's what we do, but the president has his own way of putting it.”

He added: “I think language matters. I think if language is ramped up and is seen to be aggressive it's not necessarily certain that people respond in the way that you want.

“People dig themselves in, in these circumstances. Language often covers an inability to do things.

“There are real frustrations in the region. It's not possible to solve every problem from outside. There are a number of different conflicts, but a potential confrontation with major powers being involved is only an incident away. That's why it's essential to de-scale them.”

Mr Burt said Britain wanted to use “the right sort of language to warn people and to do what they can to try and de-scale and get people to realise the risk they are running”.

“I think that's a role the UK should take and I think our language should reflect that. It's firm but it's appropriate.”

Earlier, Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, criticised European countries that have organised a parallel payments system as a way of bypassing US anti-Iran sanctions.

“This is one of most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security,” he said.

Mr Burt also said Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, held a one-to-one with Iran's foreign minister on matters including the nuclear deal and the detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

“We continue to make the point. This is a woman who should be reunited with her family and we honestly hope that will be the case,” he said.

The charity worker was jailed for five years last September on allegations of spying and attempting to topple the Iranian government.

She had been visiting her parents to introduce them to her daughter, Gabriella, who remains at their Tehran home, while her father is in London.