Iran is running out of water. Livestock and crops are dying in some of the highest temperatures on record. Thirsty, desperate people poured on to the streets, first in Khuzestan and then in cities throughout Iran. The regime’s forces quenched their thirst with live ammunition.

Four-year-old Mila Moussa had been receiving chemotherapy for leukaemia and already had a dangerously weakened immune system when she fell ill.

The desperate family and doctors phoned dozens of hospitals, but received the same answer: No beds were available.

Only last month, video footage was circulated of an Afghan woman screaming for mercy as she received 40 lashes, meted out in rapid succession by two men. Her crime — judged by a rural Taliban court — was “immoral relations,” after allegedly talking to a man on a phone.

After a decade of war in what used to be Syria, are 10 further years of conflict the best that can be expected?

The Islamic Republic of Iran was born out of hostage taking, and it continues to reap billions of dollars by abducting foreign nationals and assets, while holding entire nations to ransom.