SIR Keir Starmer today ruled out British troops joining the United States’ bombing campaign against Iran.
The PM risked further tension with Donald Trump by defending his initial refusal to let the Americans use UK bases to launch their jets.
Sir Keir Starmer updating MPs today
The President with the UK for originally blocking his request for cooperation in the offensive.
Sir Keir has since u-turned to allow the use of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to strike Tehran after the Mullahs lashed out with retaliatory onslaughts that risked the lives of British citizens.
They include hotels across the Middle East like in Dubai. where tens of thousands of UK nationals are currently trapped.
Last night Iran also fired a drone at Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, which thankfully resulted in no casualties.
Sir Keir told MPs: “The United Kingdom was not involved in the initial strikes on Iran by the US and Israel.
“That decision was deliberate. We believe that the best way forward for the region and for the world is a negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to give up any aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon and ceases its destabilising activity across the region.
“That has been the long standing position of successive British governments.
“President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest.”
It comes as…
- US fighter jet
- after Iranian drone attack
- Ministers scramble to
- Surviving Iran leaders
- Trump expects
- , allowing US to use airbases
- after terror proxy fires revenge missiles
- Brit’s lucky escape in Dubai after
The US President said the PM’s refusal to allow America to use the Chagos Islands to launch attacks was unlike anything that has “happened between our countries before”.
The blistering attack highlights the increasingly tense relationship between the Trump administration and Downing Street.
The row over Sir Keir’s latest humiliating u-turn threatened further damage to the special relationship with the US.
Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, refused to hold back as he went on the warpath during a Pentagon briefing on Operation Epic Fury.
In a barely veiled swipe at the flip-flopping PM he fumed: “Capable partners, as we’ve said since the beginning, are good partners.
“Unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force.”
Hegseth said US forces were unleashing “the most lethal and precise” air assault ever conducted in a bid to bring an end to Iran’s death cult.
He added: “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars.
“We fight to win and we don’t waste time or lives.”
His extraordinary comments piled further pressure on wavering Starmer for denying the US the use of key strategic airbases.
In a highly-charged briefing, Hegseth said the US-Israel military operation was months in the planning and would continue for as long as necessary.
He warned: “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.
“Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult.
“If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, and we will kill you.
“Our bases, our people, our allies, all in their crosshairs.
“Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb.
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.
“The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser focused.
“We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically. We set the terms of this war from start to finish.”
General Dan ‘Raizin’ Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US President gave the final “go-order” for military action on Friday evening.
In a message to his top brass the Commander-in-Chief said: “Operation Epic Fury is approved, no aborts, good luck.”
Air defence batteries were readied and pilots and crews rehearsed their strike packages for the final time.
Two carrier strike groups began to move towards their launching points as operations centres in Tampa, Florida, and at the Pentagon “came alive”.
Gen Caine said: “As always, operational security was paramount as we sought to maintain and sustain the element of surprise.
“This operation was highly classified so that at H-Hour, the enemy would see one thing, speed, surprise, and violence of action.”
Cyberattacks were launched to “disrupt, degrade and blind” Iran’s ability to “see, communicate and respond” before the skies surged into life.
More than 100 warplane, including fighter jets and unmanned drones, launched from land and sea, in a “single synchronized wave”.
American bunker-busting B-2 bombers, deployed to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities during Operation Midnight Hammer last June, flew a 37-hour round-trip sortie from the US.
The timing of the attack was switched to daylight hours to take the Islamic regime by surprise after a major intelligence breakthrough.
Information gathered by the CIA – and delivered to Israel’s spy agency Mossad – pinpointed the location of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He was due to hold three meetings with his military chiefs on Saturday morning – triggering the start of the military campaign.
Operation Epic Fury was brought forward and unleashed with an opening wave of Tomahawk cruise missiles that were launched from sea to wipe out Tehran’s air defences.
Gen Caine said: “On the ground, forces fired precision, standoff weapons, measured, deliberate, precise, and lethal.
“This was a massive, overwhelming attack across all domains of warfare, striking more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours.
“Coordinated space and cyber operations effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks across the area of responsibility, leaving the adversary without the ability to see, coordinate, or respond effectively.
“The combined impact of these strikes, swift, precise, and overwhelming, has resulted in the establishment of local air superiority.
“This air superiority will not only enhance the protection of our forces, but also allow them to continue the work over Iran.”
The B-2 stealth bombers dropped precision-penetrating munitions on Iran’s underground nuclear bunkers.
He said the US had since launched hundreds of missions from land and sea and fired tens of thousands of pieces of ordnance. Israel has struck hundreds more.
Iran had lashed out “indiscriminately” by firing warheads and drones at Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
Gen Caine added: “Operation Epic Fury stands as a reminder of what the United States military uniquely delivers, the ability to project power on a global scale with speed, surprise, precision, and overwhelming force when and where our nation requires it.
“To those who would test our resolve or threaten the United States, our allies, or our interests, understand clearly we can reach you, we can sustain the fight, and we can scale the fight, and we will prevail.
“There is no mission too complex, no distance too great, and no adversary too determined for the men and women who wear our nation’s uniform.”
Hegseth refused to rule out putting troops on the ground and warned that the US would “go as far as we need to go to advance American interests”.
He repeated calls made by President Trump to the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their govenment – but insisted: “This is not Iraq.
“This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president.
“He called the last 20 years of nation building wars dumb and he’s right.
“This is the opposite. None of this is done on a whim.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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