Brexit has reduced Europe to a mere spectator in the battle to curb Iran’s expanding nuclear programme

Editorial: Had the UK never left the EU, the bloc might still possess the unity and leverage to lead the quest for a diplomatic solution

In the immediate aftermath of​ Brexit, Britain’s place in the world is already feeling a little diminished. As The Independent reports this weekend, the greatest single threat to peace across the globe right now is Iran’s renewed determination to acquire a nuclear arsenal. With the Trump-Netanyahu peace proposal met with near-universal disdain, there is more chance of miscalculation and conflict in the region than negotiation and lasting peace.

At a moment when the major European powers concerned could and should be putting on a united front, reports suggest that there is squabbling. There often is, of course, but the habit of working together through the European Union usually helps the French, the Germans and the British to reach some common purpose. With the United States more determined to go its own way in lockstep with Israel, the dangers are clear.

We knew after the Trump-ordered assassination of Qassem Soleimani that any hope of keeping the 2015 Iran nuclear deal had disappeared. The decision by the Europeans to put the agreement into a dispute procedure did not so much kill it off as draw attention to the corpse. A moment for sober realism about Iran has arrived.