British jets could legally strike Iran’s missile bases, Lammy says
Amid criticism of Britain’s response to the conflict, David Lammy said Royal Air Force jets could legally strike Iran’s missile sites to prevent attacks on British interests in the Middle East.
The deputy prime minister said Britain would “of course” support defensive action, despite Britain’s refusal to be part of the US and Israel’s initial strikes on Iran.
On Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer announced that an additional four British Typhoon fighter jets would be deployed to Qatar to strengthen “defensive operations” in the region.
Asked whether such operations would involve hitting targets inside Iran to prevent attacks, Mr Lammy said he believed it “would be legal”.
“It is completely lawful to protect our people and our staff and that is why we have full operational capacity under these circumstances,” he told the BBC. Breakfast.
Asked whether this meant the UK could attack Iranian missile sites from our bases, he said: “I’m not here to act as a lawyer, but I think your audience will understand that in response to the attack, yes, we can shut down sites that are proposing to attack our people in the region.”
Asked whether Britain could fire in anticipation of an attack on an Iranian base, he said: “My understanding is that that would be legal.”
As the US-Israeli war against Iran entered its seventh day, the first plane chartered by the government to evacuate British citizens from the region landed in England early on Friday morning.
Sir Keir’s announcement that he will send more fighter jets to the Middle East comes as criticism of the UK’s response to the conflict grows. The Prime Minister was forced to reject criticism from opponents and allies that Britain did not act quickly enough when the war began and said he “stands by” the decision not to take part in the initial attacks on Tehran at the weekend.
Britain was criticized for not taking air defense measures to adequately protect RAF Akrotiri, which was hit by a drone in Cyprus.
Mr Lammy also insisted the UK was not ashamed of its response to the Middle East crisis, amid concerns that the air defense destroyer HMS Dragon is not expected to sail to the Eastern Mediterranean until next week.
Asked if he was embarrassed, Mr Lammy told Sky News: “Absolutely not… As we speak we have F-35s, we have Typhoons in the sky shooting down missiles and it happened in Jordan, it happened in Qatar and of course we will support citizens in the region.
“It is also true to say that we are coordinating with our allies, the French, the Germans. Cyprus is a NATO ally, so we are coordinating with other teams and other close allies on how to equip the region.
“HMS Dragon will be in the region in the coming weeks to further strengthen and support our air defence.”
The United States and Israel continued to hammer Iran with nationwide attacks, and Iran, in turn, continued retaliatory attacks on Israeli and U.S. bases and throughout the region.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary John Healey refused to rule out the possibility of British aircraft being involved in attacks on Iran during a trip to Cyprus.
“In any conflict you have to be willing to adapt to the action you take as conditions change,” he told Sky News.
The conflict led to thousands of Britons leaving the area and around 4,000 returning on commercial flights before the first government charter plane landed in London Stansted shortly before 1am on Friday morning.
Mr Lammy said on Friday that around 6,500 British nationals had returned from the UAE, recording the presence of 100,000 British nationals in the region.
He said the UK government planned to see more charter flights from Oman, telling the BBC: “This is a technical operation and we have more people to evacuate than in Afghanistan… that’s quite an achievement.”
