Iran targets British territory: Tehran fires ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia military base and warns Kier Starmer is ‘putting British lives in danger’ after he allows US to expand bombing missions
Iran fired two ballistic missiles at a joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, just hours after Keir Starmer gave Donald Trump the green light to use UK-based bombers threatening the Strait of Hormuz.
Britain’s move prompted Tehran to warn the Prime Minister that he was ‘endangering’ British lives by agreeing to Trump’s demand to use B-52s and other aircraft from RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to detonate Iranian missile sites in the strategically important waterway.
The government said in a statement that the attacks were within the scope of its agreement with Trump that allows UK-based assets to be deployed in ‘collective self-defense of the region’.
But Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi moved quickly to say Iran would ‘exercise its right to self-defence’ if Britain joined US operations.
He said in his post on By ignoring his own people, Mr Starmer is endangering British lives by allowing UK bases to be used to attack Iran.’
Shortly after, the joint base of Diego Garcia was targeted by two medium-range ballistic missiles, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Multiple US officials confirmed that neither missile hit the base. Two sources said one of the missiles failed in flight and the other was intercepted by the US, but this action was a worrying development in the third week of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Diego Garcia is located on a remote island in British waters, about 4,000 km (2,485 miles) from Iran and is home to US bombers, nuclear submarines and missile destroyers.
The latest attacks refute previous advice by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that Tehran has a limited ballistic missile range of only 2,000 km (1,240 miles).
Before Iran’s move, Trump told reporters on Friday that the US was considering “ending” the military operation.
The President added in his speech that the US military is ‘very close’ to achieving its goals in the war.
Reports emerged Friday evening that Iranian missiles had targeted the Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean, pictured above.
Donald Trump, pictured above, speaking to reporters on Friday, accused Britain of being slow to lend its military base to the United States
The US base pictured above has bombers, nuclear submarines and missile destroyers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected those comments last month, claiming Iran was ‘absolutely trying to acquire intercontinental ballistic missiles’, adding that Tehran’s nuclear capability was ‘moving towards developing weapons that could one day reach the continental United States’.
Trump harshly criticized the British government in a speech to reporters outside the White House on Friday, accusing the British leadership of being slow to respond to allowing the United States to use its bases.
‘A very late response came from England. “I was surprised because the relationship is this good but this has never happened before,” he said.
Trump said Britain initially did not want to allow the United States to use its island for a Diego Garcia base.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, pictured above, previously told Parliament that the UK would ‘protect people in the region’.
Starmer had previously allowed British bases to be used by the US only when targeting Iranian missile launchers attacking Britain and its allies, but not to defend traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Prime Minister was determined that the country would not be dragged into the war in Iran.
“We will protect our people in the region,” Starmer told Parliament earlier this week.
‘We will act to defend ourselves and our allies and not be drawn into a wider war.’
The United States and Israel have argued that the main motivation for military action against Iran is to prevent the development of nuclear weapons.
Trump accused Britain of not acting quickly as military tensions escalated in the Middle East. Above is a photo of the two at a meeting held in England last September.
The Trump administration has been projecting confidence since the initial attacks, with the president declaring on Friday that he thought ‘we won’.
He added that he did not want to negotiate a ceasefire because the US was ‘literally destroying the other side’.
Trump later accused Iran of ‘blocking’ the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway off its northern coast through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
‘The Strait of Hormuz should be protected and controlled, when necessary, by other countries that use it; USA does not do this! “We will assist these countries in their Hormuz efforts if asked, but once the Iranian threat is eliminated, that should not be necessary,” Trump later wrote on Truth Social.
The president called his allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ‘cowards’ for ‘complaining’ about high oil prices while refusing to provide military support to the US.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and Pentagon for comment.
