The world is ‘more dangerous than it has been in four decades’: MI6 chief warns West faces ‘reckoning’ with new generation of terrorists, Putin rampaging in Europe and Iran going nuclear

The head of MI6 has said the world is more dangerous than it has been for four decades, amid ongoing conflict 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 are facing a “reckoning” as a new generation of potential terrorists becomes radicalized due to the war currently breaking out in the Middle East.

Sir Moore added that the threats Europe faces ‘could hardly be more serious’, warning that if the Russian president can reduce Ukraine to a puppet state he ‘will not stop there’.

The head of MI6 said British, French, European and transatlantic security will be at risk because the cost of not supporting the war-torn country is “infinitely higher” than supporting it.

“Some countries fear that if Putin wins in Ukraine, he could push into 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 the pair gave their first talk at the event marking 120 years of the Entente Cordiale – a pact between Britain and France that united the rivals as military and diplomatic allies.

The former ambassador, who became chief in October 2020, said: “In my 37 years in intelligence, I have never seen the world in a more dangerous state.

‘And the impact on Europe, our shared European home, could hardly be more serious.’

Western security officials suspect that Russian intelligence is trying to destabilize Ukraine’s allies through disinformation, sabotage and arson.

Moscow has been linked by Western officials to several planned attacks in Europe, including an alleged plot to burn Ukrainian businesses in London and the shipping of incendiary bombs in parcels on cargo planes.

In July, one caught fire at a courier center in Germany and another at a warehouse in England.

Lerner agreed that “the collective security of all Europe is at stake” in Ukraine.

Britain and France are among Ukrainian allies who have allowed Kiev to use weapons they supply – including Scalp in France and Storm Shadow in Britain – to destroy targets deep inside Russia.

The Biden administration has recently softened its opposition to using US-made missiles to attack Russia, with Ukraine saying last week that it had used US ATACM missiles to attack Russia for the first time in the war.

Since then, Russia has targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a barrage of missiles and drones, in what the president said was retaliation for the firing of US missiles.

Russia then fired a new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile – called Oreshnik – and Putin quickly threatened to use it against “decision-making centers” in Kiev.

In Russia, Putin’s forces continue to gain ground in the eastern Donbas region and concerns are growing that Ukrainian forces could face their worst winter in three years, thanks to attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure.

Moore said Ukraine has “the will to win” but that Britain and the West recognized they needed to “do more to help.”

“We are waging a war on European soil… Nicolas and I have no doubts about the stakes in Ukraine: if Putin succeeds in reducing Ukraine to a puppet state, he will not stop there,” he added.

Regarding the conflict erupting in Gaza, Moore warned: “We have yet to fully reckon 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 the “threat of terrorism has not gone away” and after ISIS withdrew from Syria and Iraq, it was once again expanding its reach, launching deadly attacks in both Iran and Russia.

The former head of MI6, Sir John Sawyers, who also attended the speech in Paris, has previously warned that if Islamist terror attacks return on British soil it could be caused by the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.

He warned that police in Britain, as well as its spy agencies, must be “on alert” following changes in leadership in the Middle East.

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 in January next year. assumes the American presidency. 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 ahead of the talks, Kazem Gharibabadi, an Iranian minister, stoked tensions by saying the EU must “abandon its self-centered and irresponsible behavior” on a range of issues, including the war in Ukraine and the Iranian nuclear issue.

Many Europeans fear that Iran’s growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium shows that the country is secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran believes Europe rejected a clear sign of willingness to negotiate when Tehran offered to cap its uranium enrichment program at 60 percent and return experienced IAEA nuclear inspectors to Iran.

Moore said the risk of Iranian nuclear proliferation is 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 to the allied militias of Tehran. throughout the Middle East.