UK hits back at Iran's 'reckless attacks' against Diego Garcia base

An Iranian ballistic missile strike on a joint US-UK military base in the Chagos Islands has been condemned as 'reckless' by Britain's defence chiefs.

Iran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles targeting Diego Garcia in what is thought to be the first strike ever made against the base.

The significant escalation in hostilities came just hours after Keir Starmer gave the green light for Donald Trump to use UK-based bombers threatening the Straits of Hormuz.

But the move prompted Tehran to warn the Prime Minister he had placed British lives 'in danger' by consenting to Trump's request to use B-52s and other aircraft flying out of RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia to blast Iranian missile sites in the strategically important waterway.

In a statement on Friday, the Government said that such strikes were covered by its agreement with Trump to allow UK-based assets to be deployed in the 'collective self-defence of the region'. 

But Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi swiftly asserted that Iran would 'exercise its right to self-defence' if the UK joined US operations.

Posting on X, he said: 'Vast majority of the British People do not want any part in the Israel-US war of choice on Iran. Ignoring his own People, Mr Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.'

Then a short while later the missiles were launched from Tehran towards the base, The Wall Street Journal and the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

Multiple US officials confirmed to the outlet that neither missile had struck the base. Two sources said one of the missiles failed in flight, while the other was intercepted by a US warship.

The action is a concerning development that comes at the start of the third week of the conflict and coincides with a strike by US and Israeli forces against the Natanz uranium-enrichment facility on Saturday morning. No radioactive leaks occurred and residents near the site were not at risk, Tasnim news agency reported.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman today described Iran's actions against the military base as a 'threat' to UK interests.

They said: 'Iran's reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies. 

'RAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region. This government has given permission to the US to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations.'

Diego Garcia lies around 3,800km (2,360 miles) from Iran - undermining its previous assertion that its ballistic missiles can only reach 2,000 km (1,240 miles). 

General Sir Richard Barrons, who headed the UK's Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, said on Saturday that Iran's power may have been 'serially underestimated'.

The former forces chief was responding to questions over whether Trump was right to say the UK had done 'too little and too late' or whether opponents of the war were correct that the UK had been sucked into an American war.

'Both could be true. War generally does not follow a script and the enemy always gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy's vote, Iran, has been serially underestimated. 

'We are where we are - this conflict and the way it has turned out now puts British interests and those of our allies at risk and ignoring it completely is no longer appropriate even if the decisions at the start of the conflict were very different.

'Iran and the UK have been at odds for a very long time. The Iranian regime regards the UK as an enemy and so if you are seen to participate in some fashion with this US-Israeli offensive action then they are clearly going to respond and we should not be surprised.'

General Sir Richard said the UK was helping the US to ‘apply military force’, adding: ‘We have obligations to them and we may not have thought this was a good idea at the start and we may not have wanted to get involved but now in the way this has turned out, we are involved.’ 

Asked about the US President’s apparently contradictory comments last night about possibly ending the war or considering the use of ground troops, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there had been a 'mismatch' between 'the objectives you would like to achieve and the means you are prepared to apply to it’.

He added: ‘They [US and Israel] have got to choose between now announcing victory or stopping or if those objectives really matter to them, they are going to have to escalate it because you can’t do much more with air power so you are beginning to talk about potentially using troops.’ 

Doubting there would be a full scale invasion of ‘a country the size of Western Europe’, he said: ‘I don’t think anyone really conceives of an invasion and occupation of Iran but they are going to be tempted perhaps to invade Kharg Island or blockade it or attack the praetorial of the Iranian order to remove the miliary threat.’ 

Diego Garcia is strategically valuable to the US, having been used as a launchpad for operations in the Middle East for years. It has a large airfield, major fuel storage facilities, radar installations and a deep-water port.

Diego Garcia is located on the Chagos Islands, which in recent months has proven to be a source of contention between the UK and US 'special relationship'.

The UK-US base plays a critical role in both countries' ability to deter their adversaries and transatlantic defence. 

But last May, Labour signed over sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius in exchange for retaining full operational control of the base on an initial 99-year lease - a move that has been repeatedly blasted by Trump as 'a blight on our Great Ally' and 'an act of great stupidity'. 

For its part, the UK has repeatedly said that the deal does not 'compromise' British national security. It has yet to be signed off, meaning the islands currently remain as British territory.

Unlike RAF Fairford, where plane enthusiasts have been able to document sightings of UK and US bombers, the remote location of Diego Garcia means it is not fully known what missions have been launched from the base.

However the US has been building up its war machine there for some time. Last April, Trump set an 'unprecedented' deployment of its heavy B-2 bombers to the Chagos Islands as tensions grew over nuclear talks with Iran.

Six stealth bombers flew into the US airbase on Diego Garcia from Missouri n what was said to have been the 'largest single deployment in US history'.

Trump had said previously that he was particularly keen to use Diego Garcia as well as RAF Fairford in Suffolk to 'eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous regime' in Tehran.

Prior to Iran's strike against the base, Trump had told reporters on Friday that the US was considering 'winding down' military action. 

The president added in his remarks that the US military was 'getting very close' to meeting its objectives in the war. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the comments last month and claimed that Iran was 'certainly trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles,' adding that Tehran's nuclear capabilities were 'headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that can reach the continental US.'

Trump blasted the UK government while speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, accusing British leadership of a slow response to allow the US to use their bases. 

'It's been a very late response from the UK. I'm surprised because the relationship is so good, but this has never happened before,' he said. 

Trump said that the UK initially did not want to allow the US to use its island for the Diego Garcia base. 

Starmer had previously only allowed British bases to be used by the US when targeting Iranian missile launchers attacking the UK and its allies, and not for defending traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. 

The Prime Minister has stood firm 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 take action to defend ourselves and our allies, and we will not be drawn into the wider war.'

The US and Israel have maintained that the main motivation for military action in Iran is to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon. 

The Trump administration has projected confidence since the initial strikes, with the president declaring on Friday that he thinks 'we've won.' 

He added that he did not want to negotiate a ceasefire because the US was 'literally obliterating the other side.'  

Trump then accused Iran of 'clogging up' the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway on the north coast through which about a fifth of the world's oil passes. 

'The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn't be necessary once Iran's threat is eradicated,' Trump later wrote on Truth Social. 

The president called out allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as 'cowards' for 'complaining' about high oil prices while refusing to lend military support to the US. 

Iran's strikes against Diego Garcia come as fears grew over the impact of the 'Trumpflation' spike in oil and gas prices that has been triggered by the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran.

Brits were urged on Friday to consider working from home and use air fryers instead of ovens to reduce demand for energy, as the Cabinet 'condemned Iran's expansion of its targets to include international shipping', a No 10 spokeswoman said.

'They agreed that Iran's reckless strikes, including on Red Ensign vessels and those of our close allies and Gulf partners, risked pushing the region further into crisis and worsening the economic impact being felt in the UK and around the world.

'They confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.'

A fifth of global oil supplies are shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively shut since the start of the war.

That has steadily pushed oil prices higher, before a sharp rise on Thursday to nearly $118 after Iran threatened 'full-scale economic war' before striking Qatar's main liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility, which suffered 'extensive further damage'.

The chief executive of QatarEnergy said the attacks on gas facilities would take between three and five years to repair.

Drivers have already been feeling the effects at UK pumps, and experts estimate that energy bills could go up by more than a fifth when the cap next changes in July.

The Government had previously granted the US permission only for 'defensive' action - but when that decision was made, RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an Iranian drone.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir's latest move as the 'mother of all U-turns' in a post on X.

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party said granting further permission for the US to use British bases must first have a parliamentary vote.

The Prime Minister will hold a Cobra meeting next week to discuss plans to help households with the cost of living caused by the war, it is understood.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the Pentagon for comment.