British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn inadvertantly gave parliamentarians a good laugh on Tuesday.
Condemning the U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, Corbyn claimed he had “long spoken out against the Iranian government’s human rights record.”
Few comments could be more absurd.
Corbyn isn’t just an avowed and longtime friend of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he’s a former paid agent of that regime — specifically, as a host for Press TV. Part of the U.S.-sanctioned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting entity, Press TV spreads anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories blaming America for all the world’s ills. Alongside the thousands of dollars he is known to have earned there, Press TV’s narrative made it naturally appealing to Corbyn. After all, the man who just one month ago was running to become prime minister has spent his career promoting anti-Americanism.
More telling, then, was Corbyn’s refusal in a Sky News interview on Tuesday to admit that Soleimani engaged in terrorism. Instead, Corbyn referred to Soleimani as the head of Iran’s special forces and only said that he was uncomfortable with some of what Iran uses those forces for. This stands Corbyn in stark contrast to the vast majority of other Western officials who, even if they oppose the U.S. decision to kill Soleimani, have admitted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general was a bad actor.
Not Corbyn, however. As the sun sets on his political career (Corbyn is due to stand down in the coming months), he’s going out as he began: as a devoted enemy sympathizer.
