UK ‘not involved’ in Iran attack, aircraft reposition to Cyprus base
The United Kingdom has thus far not been involved in attacks carried out by the United States and Israel on Iran, according to reports on Saturday, though the country’s presence at its Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus is being bolstered.
Two Royal Air Force Airbus A400M military transport aircraft departed from the Brize Norton airbase in Oxfordshire, on the UK mainland, for Akrotiri.
The first landed at Akrotiri at 1.15pm, while the second was as of 1.30pm located south of Rhodes.
Earlier, at around 10am, a UK government-branded Dassault Falcon 900LX business jet had departed from Akrotiri and headed westwards towards continental Europe, and is as of midday also over southern Italy. It is likely en route to the UK mainland.
The BBC reported that the UK “did not participate” in Saturday morning’s strikes, and that British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to chair a high-level national security meeting, referred to in the UK as a “Cobra meeting”, later on Saturday.
Elsewhere, it had been reported in recent weeks that Starmer had rejected a US request for British military bases to be used in strikes on Iran, though it was understood that this request was related to the Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire, on the UK mainland, and the Diego Garcia airbase in the Indian Ocean, and bore no relation to Cyprus.
On Saturday, Reuters quoted a UK government spokesperson as saying that “Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution”.
It had been reported earlier this month that the UK had deployed a total of six F-35B fighter jets which departed from the Royal Air Force’s base in Marham, Norfolk, to Cyprus, “to defend the base and sovereign base territories should the situation in the region become ‘hot’”.
It added that the British government has “concerns [that] the US could attack Iran and plunge the region into a wider conflict”, and that the F-35B fighter jets will now join Typhoon jets which are already stationed in Cyprus and “carrying out missions over Iraq and Syria”.
On this front, it said that a total of four Typhoon fighter jets which were based at Akrotiri had been deployed to Qatar last month following a request by the Qatari government, which had cited “rising regional tensions”.
The salience of the UK’s bases in Cyprus has grown in recent years as tensions in the region have heightened, with the UK having previously bolstered its military presence on the island last summer in response to a back-and-forth of missiles fired by Iran and Israel at one another.
At the time, the country’s parliamentary under-secretary of state for the armed forces Luke Pollard said that there were “about 14” British Typhoon fighter jets stationed at the RAF’s Akrotiri base.
However, he did stress that the UK was not involved in bombing raids carried out by the US on Iranian nuclear facilities at the time.
Earlier last year, it had been reported that the US may ask the UK for permission to station aircraft in Cyprus for future attacks on Iran, with those reports coming after Iran had warned the US, the UK, and France that their bases and ships in the region will be targeted if they help to stop its missile strikes on Israel.
At the same time, the UK’s foreign secretary of the day David Lammy, who is now the country’s deputy prime minister, had said the country’s bases in Cyprus are “hugely important at this time”.
More recently, Cyprus was the likely launchpad for strikes conducted by the RAF against Islamic State targets in Syria last month, while former leader of the country’s Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn said on two occasions this month that the Akrotiri base was being used to deliver weaponry to Israel.