UK Says Not Involved In Strikes On Iran, But Supports Outcome

The UK said its military wasn’t involved in American air strikes on Iran, although a cabinet minister expressed support for their results. 

British military assets, including the key Indian Ocean airbase on Diego Garcia, have so far not played a role in President Donald Trump’s attacks on key Iranian nuclear facilities, ministers said on Sunday. Still, UK officials said they received advance warning from Washington and Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave his tacit support, saying that Trump had “taken action to alleviate” the threat of Tehran’s weapons program. 

Pressed during an appearance on the BBC whether the UK government thought the attacks were good, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said their “outcome” was. “I wanted a different way to obtain this, but I cannot pretend to you that the prevention of Iran having a nuclear weapon is anything other than in the interests of this country,” said Reynolds, who was speaking for the government. 

Trump’s strikes have put Starmer and other key US allies in a difficult position. While the British prime minister had urged to Trump to stick to the diplomatic path, he can little afford a public break with the UK’s most important ally, especially while pursuing Washington’s cooperation on trade and Ukrainian efforts to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion. 

Besides the immediate concerns about the showdown with Iran and its proxies engulfing more of the Middle East and disrupting energy markets, Starmer’s Labour Party wants to avoid a repeat of the mistakes of his predecessor Tony Blair’s support of the US invasion of Iraq more than two decades ago. Many in Labour blame that conflict with splitting the party and helping to usher in 14 years of Conservative government that only ended with Starmer’s election last year.  

Participation in any further US strikes, such as allowing the Pentagon to launch bombers from British military facilities on Diego Garcia, would raise issues with echoes of the debate around Iraq. Such questions include whether the British government believed the threat posed by Iran’s weapons of mass destruction poses a sufficient enough threat to allow an attack on under international law.

Although foreign ministers from Britain, France and Germany held talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday, they were unable to persuade Tehran to make enough concessions to convince Trump not to go ahead. British officials including Starmer put the responsibility for the failure of diplomacy on Iran and urged Tehran to change tact.

“Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat,” Starmer said in a statement. “The situation in the Middle East remains volatile and stability in the region is a priority. We call on Iran to return to the negotiating table and reach a diplomatic solution to end this crisis.” 

Starmer will spend Sunday discussing the next steps with allies by phone, before he travels to The Hague this week for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit. The UK has bolstered deployments of fighter jets and refueling planes in recent days to better ensure the defense of British military bases in the region if Iran decided to strike as part of any counterattack. 

“The safety of UK personnel and bases is my top priority,” UK Defense Secretary John Healey said on social media. “Force protection is at its highest level and we deployed additional jets this week.”

British officials also urged the country’s nationals located in Israel and the Palestinian territories to register their presence with the Foreign Office. The government is organizing a charter flight to remove its citizens who want leave. 

“Whilst the British government, the UK, has not been involved in these attacks, we have been making extensive preparations for all eventualities, including how we look after British nationals in the region and how we get them out,” Reynolds said on Sky News.