Defence Secretary John Healey has revealed details of the UK’s operations in the Middle East – including taking down Iranian drones – after the US and Israel targeted Iran.
Mr Healey told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the UK has had “no part of the strikes” on Iran on Saturday, which saw the killing of Iran’s long-time supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Saturday evening, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer revealed British planes were “in the sky” in the Middle East as part of a defensive operation “to protect our people, our interests and our allies” as Iran launches retaliatory action.
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The defence secretary provided more details, revealing the UK is “taking down the drones that are menacing either our bases, our people or our allies”.
“We’ve stepped up alongside the Americans. We’ve stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East. We’re flying those sorties,” he added.
Sky’s defence and security correspondent Deborah Haynes said she understood a counter-drone unit fired at the downed-drone yesterday, which was threatening a coalition base housing British troops in Iraq.
Mr Healey said extra British warplanes, radars and other weapon systems have been sent to Qatar and Cyprus, with planes currently flying to be part of a “regional coordination”.
Mr Healey said there were 300 British personnel on a base in Bahrain that was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones on Saturday.
“Some of them within a few hundred yards of where they landed,” he said.
He added that two missiles were fired towards Cyprus, but the UK does not believe Cyprus was the target.
“Nevertheless, it’s an example of how there is a very real rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region, and that requires us to act, it requires us to act defensively, in a very, very coordinated way,” he said.
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Sir Keir Starmer with British troops at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in December
The defence secretary insisted the UK is only taking part in “defensive action” and was not part of the US and Israel attack on Iran.
“All our actions are about defending UK interests and defending UK allies,” he said.
When asked if the UK would join the US in offensive action, Mr Healey would not answer, saying: “I’m not going to speculate.”
The Conservative shadow foreign secretary, Dame Priti Patel, questioned why the UK government has “not actually worked with the Americans and our American allies to be much more proactive” as she said the US would have shared intelligence with the UK.
She told Trevor Phillips: “The fact of the matter is that the United Kingdom government once again chose to sit on the fence, as they did last year, at a time when the region and British nationals who were also in the region would have been caught up in that state.”
Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei was killed in the strikes
Following reports the UK refused to allow the US to operate the strikes from sovereign British bases, Mr Healey said: “I’m not going to get into that.”
But he warned there are “rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks”.
Mr Healey also refused to be drawn on whether the US and Israel’s actions were legal under international law.
“That is for the US to set out and explain. It’s not for me as defence secretary of the UK, I’m here to speak for the UK,” he said.
On Saturday night, Number 10 confirmed Sir Keir and Donald Trump had spoken over the phone about the “situation in the Middle East” and the prime minister had set out that the UK was “taking part in coordinated regional defensive operations”.
However, Downing Street refused to give a full “read-out” of the call, as is the norm.
