Esfandyar Batmanghelidj says, in the words of the headline on his article in the print edition, that “Iran is running out of ways to avoid conflict with Israel” (Journal, 1 October). How about abandoning the idea of military conflict with Israel altogether? How about accepting that water cannot be made to flow uphill and that military defeat of Israel is impossible? How about acknowledging that Iran’s backing for Hamas and Hezbollah is cruel and stupid in equal measure and that the people who suffer most from this policy are the Palestinians?
Roger Fisken
Ashampstead, Berkshire
• Iran’s problems with Israel are of the ayatollahs’ own making. Esfandyar Batmanghelidj knows the cascades of clerical and other insults, defamation and material assistance to Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis that Iran has heaped on Israel these 40 years without due cause. These are not “ways to avoid conflict with Israel”.
Frank Adam
Prestwich, Greater Manchester
