The UK has agreed to a US request to use British military bases for "defensive" strikes on Iranian missile sites, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
But the prime minister said the UK had learned lessons from the "mistakes of Iraq", and was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran and "will not join offensive action now".
Sir Keir said the basis of the decision to accept the US request was the "collective self-defence" of allies and protecting British lives, accusing Iran of pursuing a "scorched-earth strategy".
The BBC understands the US is likely to use RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for strikes on Iranian missile sites.
In his video statement on Sunday, Sir Keir said the US would use UK bases for the "specific and limited defensive purpose" of destroying Iran's missiles "at source".
He added that the move was in accordance with international law, and the UK government had published what it said was a summary of its legal advice.
20 Comments
Akh@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 156d
UK showing why it had no spine to stay in EU
Mihies@programming.dev · 19 pts · 156d
Germany allowed logistics for this war, so UK is not the only one.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 9 pts · 156d
Okay let's be honest here, no major actor in the EU has anything resembling spine; they all go weak in the knees when Uncle Sam calls.
urandom@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 155d
Spain appears to have a spine
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 2 pts · 155d
Yeah but it's not really a major EU actor AFAIK. They're important to the EU but don't really shape its policies in the same way, say, France or Germany do. This is probably due to aforementioned spine, but either way if I'm not mistaken Spanish priorities aren't very relevant to EU foreign policy. I actually added "major" specifically to exclude Spain, though it is debatable whether that was accurate or not.
redsand@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 154d
Because Andrew was merely the crown jewel of Mossad's UK blackmail operations? We all understand that's Israel's control lever here right? Rich people on tape raping and killing kids.
green_red_black@slrpnk.net · 33 pts · 156d
sudo@programming.dev · 23 pts · 156d
Stitch your lips to our assholes because you are now in our murder suicide pact with Israel.
radiouser@crazypeople.online · 20 pts · 156d
Spineless Starmer and his Tory Lite cohorts...
Mihies@programming.dev · 4 pts · 156d
The poodle tradition is still strong
bdonvr@thelemmy.club · 19 pts · 156d
In other news, Iran today struck an RAF base in Cyprus
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/reports-of-possible-iranian-drone-impact-at-british-air-base/
Is this when the kids say FAFO?
Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 19 pts · 156d
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 155d
Seems pretty consistent for a Government that unwaveringly supports Genocide as long as the aggressors are of the "right" ethnicity and the victims are not.
osanna@lemmy.vg · 9 pts · 156d
yay. let's all lick dumpy's boots!
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 154d
Can someone find any way the US attack can be defined as "defensive"? Seriously, even as devil's advocate, I fail to see any. "Preemptive" is already questionable, but defensive is flat out lying
vane@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 155d
How many hours it took them to dump his phone memory and find some compromising materials ? 6 or more ?
WanderWisley@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 154d
On brand for the UK.
clot27@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 156d
slaves doing slavery
ms_lane@lemmy.world · -21 pts · 156d
Understandable, UK tried to stay out, rather publicly denying US use of their airfields for the attack on Iran.
Iran responded by attacking UK air bases, so now the gloves are off.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 156d
Tbh it’s a rather object lesson in target discrimination.
If Iran had been strict in their targeting, and had specifically only hit US assets and their host countries (and also, you know, specifically attempted to avoid civilian targets), other countries very likely would have stayed out. But they had to max their own dogma and “strike at all the western devils” - even the ones that were openly objecting to the US. Nobody should be surprised when Iran hits a French or UK or whatever airbase, that the country operating the airbase does not take it kindly, and shifts from nominally neutral to actively hostile.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io · 14 pts · 156d
Literally none of that happened. No UK assets were attacked before the UK changed its position.
flandish@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 156d
it does not matter to the leaders of all the nations. they still profit while working class people will die in the meat grinder.