UK announces deployment of 500 ‘additional personnel’ to Cyprus bases

The United Kingdom’s defence ministry has announced the deployment of 500 “additional personnel” to the country’s bases in Cyprus.

While the ministry did not confirm to the Cyprus Mail what their roles will be, the deployment comes amid a bolstering of British force on the island amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and after the British Akrotiri base was hit by an Iranian-made drone earlier this month.

To this end, it had announced on Friday evening that it has “more jets flying in the region than at any time in the last 15 years”, and that British pilots “have now exceeded 700 flying hours” in operations related to the conflict.

Meanwhile, the British government gave permission for the United States to use its bases on the UK mainland and in the Indian Ocean to strike Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait is a chokepoint between the most northerly point of Oman and Iran’s southern coast, which provides the only seaborne access between the Persian Gulf and the open ocean, which the Iranian government had effectively closed earlier in the month by mining the waters ad firing on ships attempting to pass through it.

Typically, around 20 per cent of global oil passes through the strait, including European imports from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. As such, many global powers have since been engaged in efforts to have the strait reopened, while the US appears ready to use force in its attempts to achieve this.

The UK’s decision to allow the US to use its bases to strike Iranian sites targeting the strait prompted the Iranian government to retaliate, firing two missiles at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean.

Neither of the missiles reached their target, with one failing in flight and the other being downed by a US warship in the region.

Shortly beforehand, the British foreign office had announced that Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had warned her Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi against further attacks on British bases.

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.

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.

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”.

The attempted firing at Diego Garcia shortly after Friday night’s granting of permission for the US to use British bases to strike sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz echoes the strike on the Akrotiri base on March 2.

Then, 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 base 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, at three minutes past midnight on March 2.

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”.