UK’s Cooper warns Iran against further attacks on British bases

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has warned her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi against further attacks on British bases, the United Kingdom’s foreign office said on Friday, with the Akrotiri air force base in Cyprus having been hit by an Iranian-made drone earlier in the month.

It said Cooper had issued the warning during a telephone call which was held on Thursday, and that she had also condemned what it described as “Iran’s reckless attacks” and strikes against “critical energy infrastructure” in the Middle East.

Additionally, it said Cooper had called for the “immediate restoration of freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, and “made clear” that the UK’s military operations in the region, some of which were launched from Akrotiri, were carried out in “response to Iranian aggression” against countries in the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, according to Iran’s Irna news agency, Araghchi used the call to warn Cooper that the UK’s decision to allow the United States to use its bases on the UK mainland and in the Indian Ocean to launch operations make the country a party to the conflict.

“These actions will certainly be considered participation in the aggression and will be recorded in the history of bilateral relations,” he said, before calling on the UK to refrain from cooperating with the US and Israel “in military or media arenas”.

He added that “at the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the sovereignty and independence of our country”.

Later in the call, he said that Iran had been “attacked while engaging in diplomacy”, and pointed out that more than 170 Iranian primary school children have been killed since the conflict began.

To Cooper’s comment about Iranian attacks on Gulf states, he said that “we respect the sovereignty of neighbouring countries and have no intention to attack them”, but then added that “unfortunately, however, US bases in those countries are used to strike us”.

He then said that “these countries have failed to fulfil their international responsibility to prevent the use of their territories for strikes against Iran”.

Earlier in the month, the UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer announced that he had summoned Iran’s ambassador in London to protest the country’s “role in recent events across the Middle East”.

Prior to that, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had announced on the evening of March 1 that his government would allow the United States to use its military bases – commonly understood to mean the Diego Garcia airbase in the Indian Ocean and the Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire, on the UK mainland – in its operations against Iran.

Akrotiri was hit by a drone a couple of hours later.

Following the drone strike, Starmer then sought to clarify that British bases in Cyprus are “not being used by US bombers”, though he did stress that the drone had not been fired “in response to any decision that we have taken”.

Instead, he said, it is believed that the drone was fired before he had made his statement on March 1, before landing after his statements concluded.

Later, when asked why the bases in Cyprus are not being used by US forces, he said they “are not suitable”.