Eurasia Press & News
An array of former British security officials are advising a US-based group that is cheerleading the US/Israel war on Iran
Senior British military and intelligence figures including two former UK security ministers and a head of special forces are advising a US organisation that has long supported military action against Iran and is now congratulating Donald Trump for his war on the country.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is led by neoconservative hawks and has close ties to US and Israeli intelligence.
When the US started bombing the country, UANI’s two leading figures wrote: “We applaud President Trump for his courageous decision to launch this military operation.”
They added: “UANI salutes the courage and professionalism of American and Israeli service members carrying out this historic mission against the Iranian regime.”
UANI’s chair Jeb Bush – younger brother of former US president George W Bush, who invaded Iraq – and the group’s CEO, Mark Wallace – a former US ambassador under Bush – had long urged the US to strike Iran.
Their US-based organisation says it “educates the public, policymakers, and businesses about the danger posed by the Iranian regime… including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons”.
Founded in 2008, UANI does not divulge where its funding comes from.
The group’s advisors include none other than Pete Hegseth, Trump’s war secretary who served in the US army in Iraq after 2003, and also Norman Roule, a former senior CIA officer who was the US National Intelligence Manager for Iran.
UANI is also advised by Mossad’s former Director of Intelligence and counter-terrorism chief, Zohar Palti, while the group’s senior adviser, Dror Doron, served for 17 years in Israel’s government including as senior analyst in the prime minister’s office.
The British figures advising UANI include Sir Graeme Lamb, a former director of UK special forces who acted as deputy commander of US/UK operations in Iraq, and, until his death last year, former UK military chief, Field Marshal Charles Guthrie.
Also notable as UANI advisers are Pauline Neville-Jones, a former UK security minister and chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee, and Sir Ivor Roberts, previously a British ambassador and the Foreign Office’s head of counter-terrorism.
‘Strategic guidance’
Another member of UANI’s advisory board is Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP and former security minister and army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tugendhat’s unpaid role for UANI involves “providing strategic guidance” to the group’s strategy in countering threats posed by Iran’s regime and “providing perspectives and advice on complex issues related to Iran’s nuclear programme, regional activities, and international relations”.
Tugendhat regards the US/Israeli attacks on Iran – widely seen as an illegal war of aggression – as “countering the biggest threat to our economic security, and the security of our allies in the Middle East in a generation”.
When Trump bombed Iranian nuclear-related sites last year, Tugendhat told the BBC that the latter were built “for the murder of Jews in Israel” and that the US strikes “keep British people safer”.
The Conservative MP also welcomed Trump’s illegal drone that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in 2020, writing that this offered the “chance to change direction” in Iran and the region.
When Israel began bombarding Gaza with missiles following the Hamas attacks in October 2023, Tugendhat told the United Nations in his capacity as security minister that “the UK stands resolutely with Israel in defending itself against terror”.
He stated that Israel “must act in line with international humanitarian law and take every possible step to avoid harming civilians” and that “we have given that message to Israel as a friend and ally”.
A Whitehall body rubber-stamped Tugendhat’s appointment at UANI as not constituting a conflict of interests. It noted that the Home Office “stated you took a firm position on Iran when you were Security Minister and would have made some policy decisions relating to Iran that UANI would likely support”.
Nevertheless, it concluded that “the Home Office did not consider you made decisions that would specifically or uniquely have benefited UANI”.
‘Peaceful’ change
When Tugendhat joined UANI in June 2025, which was announced the day after the US attacked nuclear-related facilities in Iran, he wrote on X that “UANI has been a powerful voice against a nuclear Iran and the tyrannical regime — and in favour of the peaceful return of the Iranian people to the international community.”
In fact, the group has consistently supported military action in Iran. It “applauded” Israel’s “precision strikes” on Iran’s nuclear-related facilities in June 2025, supported Iran’s military strikes on Iran in October 2024, and called for “joint US-Israeli military action against Iran’s regime” in April 2024.
Two days after Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, UANI called on the US, Israel and its allies “to launch strikes against military and intelligence targets in Iran”, since it was a “sponsor” of Hamas.
It implored the US to act as it had done after the 9/11 attacks, when it bombed Afghanistan and then Iraq.
In January, UANI stated that: “We support their [Iranian protesters] brave efforts to take back their country, heritage, and future from their oppressive leaders” and that “We urge all Iranians to put aside their differences and unite in opposition to the Ayatollah. This is their time.”
UANI’s statements regularly amplify Trump’s messaging. The group claims, for example, that “Successive American presidents sought to bring Iran into the peaceful community of nations. This President engaged extensively and in good faith to achieve a diplomatic solution. The regime chose escalation and continued its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
UANI’s policy director, Joseph Brodsky has also echoed Trump’s claim on X, posting: “President Trump says the regime in Iran is among the most evil people on Earth. ‘They cut babies heads off, they chop women in half,’ and he cites the October 7 massacre.”
Notable former advisers to UANI include former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove and former head of Mossad, Meir Dagan.
