THE time for restraint is over and the West "must strike" Iran's murderous terrorist army NOW, an ex British colonel has warned.
Richard Kemp told The Sun that nuclear-capable Iran "only understands force" - and military action will be the quickest way to end the Middle East crisis that is threatening to explode into a full-blown war.
The former army officer said: "It's deeply worrying what Iran is doing across the region, and even beyond... fermenting and supporting conflict."
However, he said policymakers must strike at the heart of all of it - the Iranian regime's ruthless terror-waging wing, The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
For decades, the IRGC has been accused of carrying out global terrorist attacks, hostage-taking on foreign soil and waging secret deadly wars against the West.
"It's time to directly target the IRGC. The Iranian entity that is responsible for for organising, funding, supplying, arming, and directing all of ... its proxies around the region."
If the West doesn't deal Iran a "significant blow", Kemp said, "I think we're gonna see very little impact from our other military actions.
"The way to address it is not what President Biden has been doing so far along with his allies in Europe, which is to appease Iran and hope that they will play nicely if we are nice to them.
"That simply will not work. The only language they understand is force."
Kemp proposes attacking IRGC's bases inside Iran, but cautions that it "might be a bridge too far from the point of view of escalation which, of course, the US is determined to avoid.
"But there are plenty of IRGC targets around the region which could be taken out by US/UK air power."
In terms of the Houthi rebels attempts to wage war on Israel by mounting attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, Kemp was pleased to see US and UK coalition forces pursuing "more offensive" footing.
Iran's terror proxy, which controls most of Yemen, "needed to be dealt with," he said.
The US-led strikes on Houthi rebel targets that began with a nighttime blitz on over 60 targets last week was "long overdue", Kemp said.
Since November, the militant group has launched missile, drone and hijacking attacks on cargo ships and later boldly fired on US and UK warships - turning one of the world's busiest trade routes into a warzone.
But, Kemp said it must go further as the Houthi attacks have continued.
"It has clearly not worked, and it requires a much more significant offensive campaign against the Houthis," said Kemp.
The spiralling crisis in the Red Sea has helped turn the Middle East - already unsettled by Israel's ongoing war against Hamas - into a powder keg ready to be lit.
This has all been part of Iran's plans explained Kemp as he listed off the wave of new Iranian strikes and attacks by its terror proxies in the last week.
"You just have to look at the strikes in Pakistan," Kemp said, to understand how far Iran will go.
Iran and Pakistan's tit-for-tat strikes in the past days have spilled the Middle East conflict out into Asia - once again provoking fears of WW3.
On top of all of that Kemp said: "Iran has been supplying vast quantities of killer drones to Russia to attack Ukrainian civilians."
Mark Wallace, CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), agrees that much stronger military action must be taken against the IRGC, who are helping its various proxies destabilise the Middle East.
He previously told The Sun: “Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism and the most egregious, terroristic and destabilising actor on the world stage,”
Wallace, who is the former US ambassador to the UN, said: "Whether it be at home or in commerce abroad, policymakers have lost the plot on Iran."
Wallace describes how Iran invested in a dream of a multi-front war against Israel by surrounding it with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to the west, Lebanon's Hezbollah in the north and Yemen's Houthi rebels in the south.
It comes as Iran launched ballistic missile attacks on "spy headquarters" and "terrorist" targets in Syria, and in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.
The IRGC claimed responsibility for the brazen ambush which killed four, injured six others and sparked fury over the concerning escalation.
Meanwhile, the US launched a fourth round of strikes in just a week at Houthi bases in Yemen after the rebels attacked a US cargo ship and vowed that "more attacks are coming".
The US-owned bulk carrier was hit by an unmanned aerial vehicle yesterday as it was heading east along the Gulf of Aden.
It came only a day after the US pounded a stash of the rebel's anti-ship missiles in a fresh strike on Yemen.
The militia group confirmed that the US vessel was attacked in response to the strikes - and chillingly warned that any new strike will be punished.
UKMTO also reported that the vessel and crew are safe and are proceeding to the next port of call.
Last week, the Houthis vowed "unimaginable" revenge after the US and UK's large-scale overnight blitz on their military bases in Yemen.
The furious rebel group called the coalition strikes that hit 60 military targets and killed five of their militants an act of "war"
