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Scottish Sun
23 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
RAF fighter jets to be scrambled to Middle East as Israel-Iran conflict spirals and Tehran threatens to strike UK bases
It comes as Iran and Israel teeter on the brink of all-out war WAR FOOTING RAF fighter jets to be scrambled to Middle East as Israel-Iran conflict spirals and Tehran threatens to strike UK bases Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BRITISH fighter jets are being deployed to the Middle East to protect British assets amid the spiralling Israel-Iran conflict, Sir Keir Starmer says. The Prime Minister bolstered our military presence in the region after Tehran warned the UK that our bases and ships are at risk. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Sign up 7 RAF jets will be deployed to the Middle East to protect British assets 7 It comes after Iran's ballistic missile strikes on Tel Aviv, pictured 7 A building is hit by a missile in Tel Aviv, Israel, on June 13 7 Sir Keir Starmer has decided to scramble British jets to the Middle East The escalation came after Iranian state media said American, British and French military bases would be in the firing line if they blocked Iran's drone and missile retaliation. The Prime Minister, on his way to the G7 summit in Canada, said: 'I will always make the right decisions for the UK and our allies. 'We are moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support in the region. "I will be clear-eyed in relation to our duties and obligations and my duties as Prime Minister.' read more politics TUCH RAP Vile chants about PM 'not acceptable' Tuchel tells England fans after Andorra win Military capabilities such as further refuelling aircraft and additional fast jets will be deployed in the wake of the threat – adding to our presence there under Operation Shader. The aircraft started their preparation for heading to the Middle East on Friday morning when Ministers realised the situation was rapidly deteriorating. It comes after Israel launched strikes on Iran's nuclear plants which triggered Tehran to hit back across the country with ballistic missiles - raising fears of an all-out war. Israel vowed "Tehran will burn" after they were hit with four deadly waves of missiles aimed at the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) headquarters in Tel Aviv which have killed at least three people. Sir Keir Starmer's intervention comes after a diplomatic blitz by telephone in the last 48 hours to the leaders of the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to calm tensions. Speaking about his conversation with Donald Trump, the PM added: 'I've obviously discussed that with President Trump yesterday, as you would expect, and what the possible routes to de-escalation are given the situation, we find ourselves in. 'I think there's a widespread concern about escalation, everybody can see what's going on and it can have on the region and beyond the region is obvious.' Iran Responds to Israeli Missile Attacks with strikes of its own The PM insisted he will be holding 'intense negotiations' face-to-face with fellow leaders at the G7 on Sunday. He refused to get into any detail on whether he knew about the Israel attack in advance. He said: 'We do have long standing concerns about the nuclear program Iran has. "We do recognize Israel's right to self-defence, but I'm absolutely clear that this needs to de-escalate. He continued: 'There is a huge risk of escalation for the region. More widely in terms of conflict, you can see the impact already on the economy and oil prices. 'And of course, all of this is linked to what's going on in Gaza. So you can see why my strong position is this needs to de-escalate, and that is the primary focus of the discussions that I've been having and will continue to be.' Foreign Secretary David Lammy had conversations with representatives from Iran, Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well as European foreign ministers on Friday. Tensions between Israel, the US and Iran have ramped up in recent weeks, amid negotiations over the Iranian nuclear deal - which is aimed at stopping the country from developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian ballistic missile strikes on Israel descended on the civilian population across the country and managed to severely damage some neighbourhoods in Tel Aviv. The country's defence minister Israel Katz said Iran "crossed red lines after it dared to attack the civilian population" and will now "pay a heavy price for it". He added: "If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn." Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict between Israel and Iran, as well as efforts towards a Ukraine settlement in a phone call with US counterpart Donald Trump, Russian state media reported Saturday. "The dangerous escalation in the Middle East was of course at the centre of the exchange," the agencies cited the Kremlin as saying. It added that Putin also informed Trump about the "implementation of the agreements reached at the meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on June 2". 7 Israeli air defence systems do battle with Iranian missiles in the skies Credit: AP 7 The first strikes hit Tehran in the early hours of Friday Credit: AP
Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
This must end the grooming cover-up for good
For decades, officials and politicians have systematically turned a blind eye to the horrific grooming gangs operating across Britain. It is therefore welcome that after months of pressure, Sir Keir Starmer has felt forced to announce a national inquiry into the full extent of the scandal. It is also long overdue. A culture of cover-ups and dismissive attitudes have concealed the true scale of offending from the public, extending from local council officials and police officers fearful of accusations of racism to national politicians like Lucy Powell, who in May felt able to call references to the scandal a 'dog whistle'. Even in January, when Elon Musk and others brought renewed focus to the issue on social media, Sir Keir Starmer's first instinct was to kick the issue into the long grass, commissioning a fresh review from Baroness Louise Casey and resisting calls for a full national inquiry. It is hard not to suspect – as Sir Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has claimed – that Sir Keir's reluctance was 'political', motivated by the extreme discomfort that a full inquiry will bring to the Labour party. Some of the highest profile scandals took place under the view of Labour councils, amid Pakistani-heritage communities seen as reliable Labour voters, and it is likely that any full inquiry will bring to light yet more damning evidence of the party's effective complicity. No matter how awkward, however, the inquiry must be given the freedom to ask all necessary questions. Those reviews and reports which have taken place to date have found that officials up and down the country felt under pressure to put 'community cohesion' ahead of the need to save children from sexual abuse. It is likely, moreover, that many in government will still be susceptible to this pressure, and wish to ensure that any inquiry is sufficiently sanitised to be 'safe' for public release. They must not get their way. There can be no more cover-ups. The inquiry must be broad enough to capture the full extent of offending, hold to account those politicians and officials who let the scandal go on, and given the resources and a timetable that brings the truth to light rapidly rather than dragging as the Covid Inquiry has. The grooming gangs scandal lay in plain sight for decades. Official inaction, through inertia and through deliberate choices to turn a blind eye, allowed abuse to continue unchecked. This cover-up must end once and for all, the officials and criminals responsible brought to justice, and the unvarnished truth laid before the country, no matter how damaging to our national self-image it may be.
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Israel claims it has gained control of airspace over Tehran
Israel has claimed to have gained control of the skies over the Iranian capital and warned that 'Tehran will burn' if more missiles are fired at its territory, but the Iranian leadership remained defiant, vowing a 'more severe and powerful response' and threatened to widen the war by striking ships and bases of Israeli allies. The mutual threats reflected the risks of a dramatic escalation in the conflict, as US-Iranian negotiations planned before the war in Oman were abandoned after Tehran said they would be 'meaningless', and Israel appeared to target Iran's gas industry. Israeli rhetoric reflected its leaders' growing confidence that they have gained the upper hand, and raised questions over whether Israeli war aims could go beyond the stated objective of crippling Iran's nuclear programme. The threat to destroy Tehran was delivered by Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, after Iran responded to the surprise Israeli attack on Friday morning with a barrage of several hundred ballistic missiles and drones, a small percentage of which succeeded in penetrating Israeli defences and killed three people in Tel Aviv and Rishon LeZion. Katz, whose forces have already razed large parts of Gaza, held Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responsible for Tehran's fate. 'The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage, bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Tehran's residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel's citizens,' Katz said. 'If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn.' The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) targeted the air defences around the capital city on Saturday morning and became increasingly confident they had achieved complete air superiority and freedom of action. 'The aerial roadTehran is effectively open,' an IDF official said. Later in the day, Benjamin Netanyahu said: 'In the very near future, you will see Israeli air force jets over the skies of Tehran.' Air force warplanes, the Israeli prime minister said, would target 'any site and any target of the Ayatollah regime', after dealing a 'real blow' to Iran's nuclear programme. A few hours later, Iranian media reported a 'massive explosion' at a refinery in the port city of Kangan, linked to the South Pars gas field, the world's largest. The media reports said it had been struck by an Israeli drone, which would be the first attack on Iran's oil and gas industry, a development with potentially huge economic and environmental consequences. The IDF did not immediately comment on the attack, and Iran's oil ministry said the resulting fire had been extinguished by late evening. Iranian leaders maintained a defiant front. The president, Masoud Pezeshkian, pledged that continued Israeli attacks would produce a 'more severe and powerful response', the new Revolutionary Guards commander vowed his forces would 'open the gates of hell' on Israel, and Iranian state media quoted officials as warning the US, UK and France that their military bases and ships will be targeted if they helped shoot down Iran's missiles and drones. The US and France have already stated their readiness to defend Israel, and American media reports have suggested that US forces have already been in action. The UK government has said its forces had not provided any military assistance to Israel and the prime minister, Keir Starmer, has emphasised the need for de-escalation. Following through on the threat would be an enormous gamble for Iran, drawing western forces further into the conflict when it is already reeling under the force of sustained Israeli bombing. Speaking at a session of the UN security council on Friday, the US diplomat McCoy Pitt warned: 'No government proxy or independent actor should target American citizens, American bases or other American infrastructure in the region. The consequences for Iran would be dire.' At the same time, Israel's air defences have shown themselves capable of minimising the danger posed by Iranian missiles and drones. The IDF said Iran had so far fired about 200 ballistic missiles at Israel and launched more than that number of drones but claimed the overwhelming majority had been intercepted. The Iranian response has also been further blunted by Israel's targeted killing of Tehran's senior generals, almost completely wiping out the top echelons of the chain of the command. On Saturday, the IDF claimed to have killed two more: the head of intelligence for the armed forces, Gholam-Reza Marhabi, and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' ballistic missile arm, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri. In total since the start of the war, the IDF said Israeli warplanes had attacked 150 targets inside Iran with hundreds of munitions. Iranian state media said that a fighter jet hangar at Tehran's Mehrabad airport had also been targeted. Iran's state TV said about 60 people, including 20 children, had been killed in an attack on a housing complex in Tehran. Iran's envoy to the UN security council, Amir Saeid Iravani, said on Friday that 78 people had been killed in the Israeli attacks, and that more than 320 were injured, most of them civilians. Alongside Iran's top generals there were nine nuclear scientists among the dead, as Tehran was caught unawares by the Israeli assault. An IDF official described the targeted scientists as the 'people who were main sources of knowledge, the main forces advancing the nuclear programme'. The Iranian government also said there was limited damage at its uranium enrichment plant at Fordow, its second enrichment facility but Israel denied having bombed it. . On Friday, the IDF claimed to have inflicted 'significant damage' at the plant at Natanz. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed the above-ground part of the Natanz plant had been destroyed but noted no apparent damage to its underground chambers. An IAEA report said that attacks caused radiological and chemical contamination in the Natanz facility, but that it was manageable and there was no sign of higher radiation in the area around the plant. Iran also said there had been attacks on its nuclear site in Isfahan, which houses a uranium conversion plant, a fuel production unit and other facilities. The IAEA reminded Israel that attacks on nuclear sites were illegal and contrary to the UN charter, with a potential to cause 'radioactive releases with grave consequences'. Israel's justification for its attack on Iran was that the country was getting unacceptably close to acquiring a nuclear weapon, and specifically that it was working on weaponisation, the assembly of components into a warhead. That is a claim not found in US intelligence assessments or in IAEA reports. An IDF official on Saturday gave more details of Israel's allegation, claiming that Iranian technicians had been working on an explosive trigger mechanism for a nuclear bomb, and that part of that work was being done in Isfahan. 'We have seen clear intelligence indicating that they are taking steps forward rapidly, that cannot be understood in any other way than for a nuclear bomb,' the official said. Israelis in Tel Aviv and other cities spent the dawn hours on Saturday in shelters as a new barrage of Iranian missiles headed towards them, while the IDF said it had intercepted incoming drones in the skies above the Dead Sea. Later in the morning, sirens went off in the West Bank and in northern Israel, near the Sea of Galilee. The worst casualties from the incoming missiles were in the West Bank, where five Palestinians, including three children, were killed, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, reportedly by a projectile fired by Houthi forces in Yemen, who are Iranian allies. Over the first 24 hours of the conflict, three Israelis were also killed, two in Rishon LeZion and one in nearby Tel Aviv, with dozens injured and extensive damage to buildings. There were reports from Gaza of Israeli shooting of large numbers of Palestinians trying to reach food distribution points, but details were hard to confirm on the third day of a communications blackout after the severing of a critical cable by Israeli forces. The few missiles that pierced Israel's defences caused significant damage but few fatalities. In Tel Aviv on Friday night, smoke from one impact site rose up in columns so thick they obscured the city skyline. Israel's ambulance service said 34 people were injured on Friday night in the Tel Aviv area, most with minor injuries. Police later said one person had died. Another two people were confirmed killed in a direct missile strike on central Israel on Saturday morning. The Israeli leadership and the IDF have insisted that its offensive against Iran, called Rising Lion, would continue until Tehran's nuclear programme – which Netanyahu said was on the brink of producing weapons – was comprehensively destroyed. Addressing the UN security council, the IAEA director-general, Rafael Grossi, warned of the potentially disastrous consequences of such attacks. The US role in the Israeli operation remained murky. In the run-up to the Israeli 200-plane attack, Donald Trump had publicly urged Israel to give diplomacy more of a chance before US-Iranian talks that were planned for Sunday. On Friday, the US president insisted he had been well informed of Israel's plans and described the Israeli attack as 'excellent'. ABC quoted a 'source familiar with the intelligence' as saying the US had provided 'exquisite' intelligence and would help defend Israel as needed.
