John Healey declines to rule out UK aircraft taking part in Iran strikes
Defense Secretary John Healey refused to rule out the possibility of UK aircraft being involved in strikes against Iran.
During a trip to Cyprus, he was asked whether he would prevent British aircraft from carrying out military strikes against the country.
During an interview with Sky NewsHe said: “In any conflict you must be willing to adapt your action as conditions change.
“I’m doing this by bringing in anti-drone helicopters overnight. I’ll do this by bringing in the Type 45 air defense destroyer in the next few weeks.”
“I am doing this by bringing together senior planners to coordinate the contribution that other nations are now starting to make… German frigates and Greek ships in the region are now also participating.”
Pressed again on whether he would rule out British aircraft taking part in offensive operations over Iran, he said: “Everything that we have done is defensive, is legal and is co-ordinated with other allies.
“This is one of the great strengths that Britain, its NATO allies and long-standing partners like Qatar, Jordan, Cyprus have when working with the British.”
The Defense Secretary met his counterpart in Cyprus early on Thursday in a bid to ease tensions over the UK’s response to drone strikes on the island.
The government has faced criticism for not having an adequate military presence in the Middle East and for the speed with which it responded after an Iranian-made drone struck the British base RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
More than 400 extra air defense personnel were sent to UK bases in Cyprus.
Two Wildcat helicopters armed with drone destruction missiles will arrive in Cyprus on Friday.
The Type 45 warship HMS Dragon is also being deployed as part of the restructuring, but it is unlikely to arrive in the Mediterranean until next week.
Cyprus’ British High Commissioner Kyriacos Kouros said the British military presence to defend the island was “the least we expected”, pointing to naval forces sent earlier by other European countries.
On Monday night, a hangar at RAF Akrotiri was hit by an Iranian-made Shahed drone launched from Beirut, Lebanon, according to Cypriot officials.
Two more unmanned aerial vehicles detected on Monday were shot down by British warplanes taking off from Akrotiri.
Mr Healey said he had moved extra jets, air defense systems, radars and drones to Cyprus “weeks before” the conflict began on Saturday.
When he was told that the French had immediately launched a frigate while Britain’s HMS Dragon should have been prepared, he said bringing defense planners to Cyprus would help co-ordinate the contributions of Britain and other nations.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer had previously announced that four additional British Typhoon fighter jets would be deployed to Qatar.
The Prime Minister also defended the government against criticism from Donald Trump over the UK’s decision not to get involved in the initial attacks.
The US president said Sir Keir was no Winston Churchill, while the Prime Minister also faced domestic criticism from political opponents for failing to build a larger presence in the Middle East before the conflict began.
In his latest salvo on Thursday, Mr Trump told the New York Post that Britain was “very disappointing” and that Sir Keir should support the US “without question or hesitation”.
Sir Keir stressed that the special relationship between the US and the UK had not been damaged by the dispute, telling reporters: “Look, the special relationship is in place at the moment.”
He added: “As always, we share intelligence 24/7. This is a special relationship.”
The Prime Minister did not want to directly address a report in Spectator magazine that suggested Sir Keir was open to allowing the US to use British military bases in initial strikes against Iran.
The report claimed Cabinet ministers, including Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, had pressured him not to do so.
In response to a question from reporters, Sir Keir outlined the timeline for talks between the government and the US.
He said: “Until Saturday afternoon there was no request from the US regarding the terms we agreed to, so there was no concrete decision to be made on Friday.
“We had to make a decision on the request that came on Saturday afternoon – we were already taking measures according to our own capacity – on Saturday afternoon, late in the afternoon.
“Then, as you can imagine, we went over the details with the United States the next day and finally came to a decision on Sunday, which I announced around eight or nine o’clock on Sunday evening.”
The Spectator story represents a potential leak of highly sensitive information from the government’s National Security Committee.
