Duncan McFarlane is right to draw attention to what is happening in the Gulf with respect to Iran (Letters, January 27).

In the mid 1970s I worked as a civil engineer putting water schemes into the villages around the Musandam, the little part of Oman that sticks into the Strait of Hormuz. So I have a particular interest in the events now unfolding in that part of the world as the west sends its navy into the Gulf to intimidate Iran. I thought that type of gunboat diplomacy had long passed but it seems we have still not learned the lessons of history, even recent history.

We may not know much about Iranian history over the past century, but the Iranians do.

They know about the decades of British and US interference in their internal affairs, even changing their government when we were dissatisfied with the incumbent.

They remember the support given to Saddam Hussein's Iraq in its war against Iran in the 1980s, in which hundreds of thousands of Iranians died in defence of that invasion.

They remember the shooting down of an Iranian civil aeroplane heading for Dubai; the American warship was in Iranian waters and had stationed itself under the plane's flight path, yet the Americans said they thought the commercial aircraft was a fighter plane. The commander of the warship was given a hero's welcome when he returned to the US.

They look at the the three nuclear powers – the US, UK and France – and see none of them taking seriously their obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to rid the world of nuclear weapons, yet preaching to the Iranians that they will use force if necessary to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons.

The Iranians wonder why so little heed is paid to the fact that Israel introduced nuclear weapons into the Middle East decades ago, yet it is still fully supported militarily by the US to a remarkable degree, and no effort is made to make Israel sign up to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. They listen to the constant refrain that Iran is intent on "wiping Israel off the map" when Iran has also made it clear that it will accept any settlement that the Palestinians come to with Israel – not that the Israelis are in any hurry to reach any agreement.

The UK in particular should be very careful to distance itself from the events unfolding in the Middle East. We have more than enough baggage from our past disastrous involvements in that part of the world.

Nick Dekker,

1 Nairn Way,

Cumbernauld.