Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said Tehran is “firmly behind a lot” of instability in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, risking global chaos.
He urged China and other countries “who have an interest” in avoiding conflict and disruption to global trade to pressure Iran to reign in militia groups in those countries.
Mr Shapps said: “If you look at the situation throughout the region, throughout the Middle East, you’ve got the Iranian-backed Houthis, you’ve got Lebanese Hezbollah, you’ve got Hamas themselves trained by Iran. You’ve got militant groups in Iraq and in Syria. They are firmly behind a lot of these problems.”
Britain, he added, was increasing the pressure, partly through diplomatic channels.
“The Foreign Secretary has been speaking to his Iranian opposite number and saying you have to put a lid on this.”
“We understand that they don’t want to see this conflict, clearly not when it comes to the Houthis, for example. And it’s a very, very dangerous game for them to be playing.”
“And we are calling on them, and others like China who have an interest, for example – particularly in the trade that comes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal – to make that message particularly clear to the Iranians that no good can come of this and they need to calm and cool the situation in the region.”
It was an Iranian-backed militia that injured American troops in a missile attack on the Al Asad airbase in Western Iraq on Saturday.
An unspecified number of US personnel were “undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries”. It is the latest in a series of attacks on US positions in Iraq and Syria by Iran’s proxies in the region since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza conflict last October.
The Iranian military has also carried out a number of missile strikes in recent days against targets in Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
Mr Shapps warned that terrorist groups such as Isis are using “more sophisticated weapons”. And they were “joining together”, increasing the threat of conflict.
He said we need to be ready and to understand the era in which we are living faced with “irrational” states like Iran and North Korea. He added: “All of that combines to a more dangerous world.”
Last week, he visited British forces in the Red Sea after the Government said it “won’t stand by” while shipping is attacked by Houthi rebels.
The UK has joined the US in carrying out strikes against the group in Yemen, but ships have continued to be targeted.
He met the crew of the guided missile destroyer Diamond.
