An Iranian attack on US military bases could draw the UK into the conflict
When I got to Chequers on Sunday morning the prime minister had clearly been up for most of the night and hitting the phones all morning with calls to fellow leaders in Europe and the Middle East as he and others scrambled to try to contain a very dangerous situation.
His primary message on Sunday was to try to reassure the public that the UK government was working to stabilise the region as best it could and press for a return to diplomacy.
But what struck me in our short interview was not what he did say but what he didn't - what he couldn't - say about the US strikes.
It was clear from his swerve on the question of whether the UK supported the strikes that the prime minister neither wanted to endorse US strikes nor overtly criticise President Trump.
Instead, his was a form of words - repeated later in a joint statement of the E3 (the UK, Germany and France) to acknowledge the US strikes and reiterate where they can agree: the need to prevent Iran having a nuclear weapon.
He also didn't want to engage in the very obvious observation that President Trump simply isn't listening to Sir Keir Starmer or other allies, who had been very publicly pressing for de-escalation all week, from the G7 summit in Canada to this weekend as European countries convened talks in Geneva with Iran.
4:00
It was only five days ago that the prime minister told me he didn't think a US attack was imminent when I asked him what was going on following President Trump's abrupt decision to quit the G7 early and convene his security council at the White House.
When I asked him if he felt foolish or frustrated that Trump had done that and didn't seem to be listening, he told me it was a "fast moving situation" with a "huge amount of discussions in the days since the G7" and said he was intensely pressing his consistent position of de-escalation.
What else really could he say? He has calculated that criticising Trump goes against UK interests and has no other option but to press for a diplomatic solution and work with other leaders to achieve that aim.
1:15
Before these strikes, Tehran was clear it would not enter negotiations until Israel stopped firing missiles into Iran - something Israel is still saying on Sunday evening it is not prepared to do.
The US has been briefing that one of the reasons it took action was because it did not think the Iranians were taking the talks convened by the Europeans in Geneva seriously enough.
It is hard now to see how these strikes will not serve but to deepen the conflict in the Middle East and the mood in government is bleak.
Iran will probably conclude that continuing to strike only Israel in light of the US attacks - the first airstrikes ever by the US on Iran - is a response that will make the regime seem weak.
2:38
But escalation could draw the UK into a wider conflict it does not want. If Iran struck US assets, it could trigger article five of NATO (an attack on one is an attack on all) and draw the UK into military action.
If Iran chose to attack the US via proxies, then UK bases and assets could be under threat.
The prime minister was at pains to stress on Sunday that the UK had not been involved in these strikes.
Meanwhile, the UK-controlled airbase on Diego Garcia was not used to launch the US attacks, with B-2 bombers deployed from Guam instead.
There was no request to use the Diego Garcia base, the president moving unilaterally, underlining his disinterest in what the UK has to say.
The world is waiting nervously to see how Iran might respond, as the PM moves more military assets to the region while simultaneously hitting the phones.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Australian government backs US strikes on Iran but urges ‘peaceful settlement from here'
Australia supports the US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities and maintains the latter nation must not be allowed to possess atomic weapons, foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says, calling for Tehran to return to negotiations. But while Wong has refused to say whether the communications facility at Pine Gap was used in the American bombing of three Iranian sites, she said it was a 'unilateral strike' from the Trump administration, and that the US has not yet asked Australia to get involved in any future military engagement. 'The world has long understood we cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This action is being taken to prevent that. So, we support action to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon,' Wong told Channel Nine. Nearly 24 hours after US president Donald Trump said American strikes had 'totally obliterated' key Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, the Albanese government on Monday gave its first endorsement of the action, after a statement on Sunday from an unnamed government spokesperson noted the strikes. Fellow senior minister, Tanya Plibersek, told Channel Seven: 'We do support the strikes'. 'We certainly don't want to see full-scale war in the Middle East. It is a very delicate and different time, and we would encourage Iran to come back to the negotiating table,' she said. The federal Coalition backed the strikes and accused Labor of being 'too ambiguous' in its response to the major escalation in the Middle East conflict; but international law experts described the federal government's response as 'pretty weak', saying the American strikes were illegal and that Australia should stand up for the 'red lines of international law'. Anthony Albanese told 2GB radio he would speak on the Iran matter on Monday, following a meeting of the national security committee of cabinet. Asked on the ABC whether Australia believed the strikes were in accordance with international law, she did not directly respond, but said the US bombing had targeted Iran's nuclear program. 'The world has long agreed that Iran is not in compliance with its international obligations when it comes to nuclear material. And the world has long agreed that it is not in the interest of collective peace and security for Iran to gain access to any nuclear weapon,' she said. Wong rebuffed suggestions the government had been slow to respond. She again called for 'de-escalation and diplomacy' rather than further ratcheting up. 'And that's not just words, it's a view about the risk to the people of the region and to the world, to global instability. If we see escalation and a full-scale war. We do not want to see that,' she told Nine. Coalition acting shadow foreign minister Andrew Hastie said the opposition backed the US strikes and also called for dialogue. 'We want to see a peaceful settlement from here. And I'm just not going to speculate on what steps might be taken next,' he told Radio National. On Channel Nine, Wong was asked if the joint Australian-US communications facility at Pine Gap, in the Northern Territory, had been used in planning or carrying out the strikes. She replied: 'You wouldn't expect me to comment on intelligence matters ever'. 'But what I would say is, the US has made it clear this was a unilateral strike.' Wong also said the US had not requested Australian assistance in future military operations, and that she 'wouldn't speculate.' 'I again would say we are concerned, as are so many people around the world about continued escalation. No one wants to see full-scale war in the Middle East.' Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce told Sunrise he was concerned about further escalation in the region. 'This could go south in the most tremendous way for Australia and I did see a sense of gloating and hubris from the United States,' he told Seven's Sunrise show on Monday. 'That is alright if it is the end of the game, but if this takes the next step we are all going to be involved.' Former ambassador to the US Arthur Sinodinos said he believed there was 'no way we would put troops on the ground.' 'I don't think the government or the political establishment here are suggesting that we just follow whatever the US is going to do,' he told AAP. Wong again urged Australians in Iran and Israel to leave if they can do so safely, saying in a doorstop around 2900 Australians in Iran and 1300 in Israel had registered for assistance. She said Australian officials have been deployed to the Azerbaijani border, and if Australians can travel there, they would be helped; and that the government was hoping to take advantage of a possible opening of Israeli airspace. 'Obviously, this is very fluid, but we are seeking to make arrangements to utilise that window, if we are able. And we have advised Australians on the ground of that fact,' she said. 'We are seeking to utilise this opportunity, but the situation on the ground is uncertain and valid and risky.'
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Chris Mason: The UK's position on Iran is clear but will the US listen?
The prime minister has spoken to President Trump in the aftermath of America's attacks on in the end, the call beforehand demanding a yes or no answer didn't is not to say it might not in the days and weeks to British government is making it known that while it was told in advance what Washington was about to do, it didn't take part and wasn't asked so there wasn't a call from President Trump asking the prime minister whether the UK would be involved, for instance via authorising US warplanes to use the UK military base at on Diego Garcia in the Indian repeatedly pressed publicly for "de-escalation" as Sir Keir Starmer puts it, and questions seemingly being raised privately within government about the legality of getting involved, saying yes to a request for help from the White House might have been saying no would have been difficult too, after months of assiduous effort put into developing a good relationship with President acting alone and choosing to send its planes direct from America meant that massive, binary decision from Sir Keir wasn't depending if, how and when Iran chooses to retaliate, some of these trade-offs could soon return. For now, though, how should the UK's approach be assessed?In short, the government wills the ends America is pursuing, but is conspicuously not endorsing the other words, it doesn't want a nuclear armed neither is it saying it supports Washington's means of trying to remove that outcome - bombing Tehran's nuclear Conservatives see this as equivocation and "moral cowardice".On Friday, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, alongside France, Germany and the European Union, met Iran's Foreign Minister in Geneva, Switzerland - but President Trump was publicly dismissive of these efforts.A day or so later, and the attacks they did, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Lammy by had met a few days earlier in foreign secretary has again spoken to his Iranian opposite number Abbas UK is encouraging Iran to talk directly to the has been making it clear for days that it won't talk to America while it is being hit by the Lammy has also spoken to the Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, pressing the case for a diplomatic solution and to the foreign ministers of Egypt and Cyprus - and then spoke again to UK position, for now at least, is clear - the government believes a diplomatic solution from here on in is the best way to secure an Iran free of nuclear weapons into the long America chose not to listen to this argument from London, Paris, Berlin and elsewhere before its air question is whether it will now they have can expect a minister, probably the foreign secretary, to face questions on all this in the Commons on Monday on Tuesday the prime minister, President Trump and plenty of other Western leaders will gather in the Netherlands for the annual summit of the Nato military alliance. They will have plenty to discuss. Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Political reaction to U.S. strikes inside Iran
NBC News' Hallie Jackson reports on the dissent within the GOP over President Trump's decision to bomb three sites inside Iran.
