After US President Donald Trump walked away from the Iranian nuclear deal, which closed the door on diplomacy, his administration’s pretext of freeing Iranians from authoritarianism is similar in tone to previous US war propaganda in this region.

May I correct one statement in Richard Fitzpatrick’s article (Features, Feb 16) on the escape of the double-agent George Blake from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966 with the collaboration of Seán Bourke and assistance from Pat Pottle, my wife Anne, and myself.

Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran, a move that UK foreign secretary David Miliband today called “harassment and intimidation” and reflected a hardening of the regime’s stance toward the West.