The UK is sending more jet fighters to the Middle East after Israel attacked Iran on Friday afternoon. Photo / Royal Air Force
The UK is sending more jet fighters to the Middle East after Israel attacked Iran on Friday afternoon. Photo / Royal Air Force
Britain is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East over fears that fighting between Israel and Iran will erupt into a war that engulfs the region.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that he would bolster the RAF’s presence to defend British interests should the skirmishes between the twopowers escalate.
He made the announcement on Saturday (local time) aboard a government plane as he headed to Canada for what will be crisis talks with G7 leaders.
Israel unilaterally moved against Iran on Friday, launching hundreds of bombing strikes which continued into Saturday.
The Israel Defence Forces said its mission was to extinguish the “immediate existential threat” Iran presented and that it would not stop until that was accomplished.
Keir Starmer is now heading to Canada for crisis talks with other world leaders about the Israel-Iran conflict. Photo / Getty Images
As of midday on Saturday, more than 150 strikes had been launched against military and nuclear targets, said the IDF. Nine nuclear scientists had been killed, together with several senior Iranian commanders, including Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff for the country’s armed forces.
Tehran struck back on Friday with rocket and drone attacks against the Tel Aviv area, which killed three civilians and injured 172.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defence minister, said the Iranian leadership had crossed a red line by firing at civilians and that “Tehran will burn” if it continued.
Speaking to reporters, Starmer refused to be drawn on whether British planes could join the Americans in defending Israel from future Iranian strikes.
“I will always make the right decisions for the UK. We are moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support.”
It is understood that the UK is deploying more fast jets, such as Typhoons, as well as air-to-air refuelling craft to support defensive operations.
The RAF has an airbase at Akrotiri, on Cyprus, from which warplanes were scrambled last October to help defend Israel against Iranian strikes.
An Israeli strike destroyed a building in Tehran. Photo / AFP
Relations between the British Labour Party and Israel have since deteriorated, with Britain sanctioning two Israeli ministers last week.
Asked whether the UK would offer its support now Israel was under attack once more, Starmer replied: “This is not only fast-moving, it’s intense”.
“These are obviously operational decisions and the situation is ongoing and developing and therefore I’m not going to get into the precise details.
“But we’ve already been moving assets, including jets, and that is for contingency support across the region. So that is happening.”
US not involved
While the US was not involved in Israel’s initial strikes against Iran, it did help Tel Aviv to defend itself against Tehran’s retaliation.
Britain did not join in that effort and, unlike the White House, No 10 is not thought to have been warned by Israel that it was planning to attack Iran.
It is understood that, unlike last year, Israel did not ask for the UK’s assistance in defending itself against the Iranian attacks.
The Prime Minister said that during a call with Israel leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday afternoon, they had discussed “the safety and security of Israel”.
“Our constant message is to de-escalate, and therefore everything we’re doing, all discussions we’re having are to do with de-escalation,” Starmer said.
“We do have long-standing concerns about the nuclear programme Iran has. We do recognise Israel’s right to self-defence.
“But I’m absolutely clear that this needs to de-escalate. There is a huge risk of escalation for the region. And, of course, all of this is linked to what’s going on in Gaza.”
The conflict is already having an effect on the Britisn economy as oil prices surge. Photo / File
Effect on Britain
Starmer warned that the tensions in the Middle East were already having an “impact” on Britain’s economy after they sent oil prices surging.
No 10 will be aware a wider conflict could spark a new cost of living crisis by driving up energy prices at a time when households are struggling.
Western nations are braced for several more days of hostilities between the two countries, including ongoing Israeli strikes.
Netanyahu on Saturday threatened to strike “every target of the ayatollah regime” in Iran, adding that Israel had already dealt a “real blow” to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
“We have paved a path to Tehran. In the very near future, you will see Israeli planes, the Israeli air force, our pilots, over the skies of Tehran.”
Why it attacked
In justifying its attacks, Israel said it had intelligence to show that Iran was planning to weaponise its enriched uranium.
Israel claims Iran has enough enriched uranium to build 15 nuclear bombs. While not independently verified, this would surpass previous estimates. On Thursday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog estimated that Iran had enriched enough uranium for nine bombs.
While satellite images of Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites showed some damage, it was not immediately clear to what extent Tehran’s nuclear programme was harmed.
In a blow to hopes for a diplomatic solution, a sixth round of talks between Tehran and Washington planned for this weekend was cancelled on Saturday, mediator Oman said.
In the latest telephone call between the pair, Donald Trump, the US president, told Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, that the White House was ready to resume nuclear talks with Iran, despite Tehran having earlier said further talks would be “meaningless”.
During the phone call, Trump said the war between Israel and Iran needed to end.
“President Putin called this morning to very nicely wish me a happy birthday, but to more importantly talk about Iran, a country he knows very well,” the US president, who turned 79 on Saturday, wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“He feels, as do I, this war in Israel-Iran should end, to which I explained, his war [in Ukraine] should also end.”
Israeli air strikes continued into Saturday, with explosions heard in Tehran. Israel said it was striking dozens of missile launchers, after Tehran fired multiple barrages towards Israel.
At least two people were killed and 20 injured in Rishon LeZion, a suburb of Tel Aviv, while one of Iran’s ballistic missiles, which carries a ton of high explosive, also wounded about 50.
In what would be further retaliation, Iran is considering shutting access to the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported, citing statements by Esmail Kosari, a member of the parliament’s security commission.
Positioned between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most significant gateway for oil shipping, accounting for nearly one-fifth of global oil shipments.
