Latest news with #escalation
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Campaigners call for Keir Starmer to say if US nuclear weapons are back in UK
Campaigners have called for Keir Starmer to tell parliament whether US nuclear weapons have returned to British soil after a distinctive US air force transport flight was spotted landing at RAF Lakenheath on Friday morning. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and several experts believe that it is highly likely that a number of US B61-12 gravity bombs were delivered to a US air force squadron last week, the first US nuclear deployment in the UK since 2008. Tom Unterrainer, the chair of CND, said it was 'completely inappropriate' for the public to find out 'a major escalation in nuclear danger' via the assessments of military experts and called for the prime minister to update MPs. The head of the campaign group said the prime minister 'must make a public statement about this major change in Britain's security arrangements and allow for a transparent and democratic debate' on the issue. Confirmation of any deployment of nuclear weapons by Starmer or the defence secretary, John Healey, is not expected, however. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said: 'It remains a long-standing UK and Nato policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.' One expert, William Alberque, a former director of Nato's Arms Control, Disarmament and WMD Non-Proliferation Centre, said 'the evidence is overwhelming' to conclude that B-61 nuclear bombs have been transported to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. He cited other specialists who had tracked an unusual C-17 transport flight last week from the US air force base at Kirtland, New Mexico, which hosts a repository of an estimated 2,500 nuclear weapons, to Lakenheath. Taking off on Thursday, the transport plane landed in the UK on Friday and flew with its transponders on, meaning its flight was visible. The flight was operated by the 62nd Airlift Wing, the only US air force unit authorised to transport nuclear weapons. Similar flights also took place last week to air bases in Belgium and the Netherlands, home to long established 'nuclear sharing' missions – where American tactical nuclear weapons are stored at European air bases. Though the UK announced at last month's Nato summit that the RAF would purchase F-35A fighter jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the likely transfer to Lakenheath comes several years ahead of that deal being completed. Hans Kristensen, nuclear information project director at the Federation of American Scientists, said he believed it was possible a deployment of nuclear weapons had taken place, and would come after a modernisation of the underground storage facilities at the Lakenheath base. The 'addition of weapons to Lakenheath would mean the number of US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe has been increased for the first time since the cold war' from approximately 100 bombs 'to probably 125-130', Kristensen said. It would also indicate that 'Nato has changed its policy of not responding with new nuclear weapons to Russia's nuclear threats and behaviour', he added. The B61-12 is a relatively simple gravity bomb that must be flown and dropped over its target. It comes in four variants, only one of which is more powerful than the 15kt weapon used to bomb Hiroshima in 1945. It has an explosive yield of 50kt, while the others are 0.3kt, 1.5kt and 10kt. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has prompted a remilitarisation in Europe, and Nato allies agreed last month at the Nato summit to lift core defence spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035. The weapons are expected to be stored for the US air force 493rd squadron, nicknamed the Grim Reapers, based at Lakenheath. Last week, members of the unit were selling a distinctive commemorative coin at the Royal International Air Tattoo, with a heavyhanded clue that their mission had changed. Photographed by Tony Osborne, a journalist with Aviation Week, the coin comes in the shape of mushroom cloud. One side features a skull, a large missile, and the inscription 'prepare to meet thy maker' – while the other shows an explosion. 'It's quite an overt way of saying yes,' Osborne said. The coin was sold out by the second day of the air show, the journalist added, such was its popularity among those attending the event at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Khaleej Times
Fears of escalation after Israel hits Houthi-held Yemen port
Israel pounded Yemen's Houthi-held port of Hodeida with air strikes on Monday for the second time in a month, stoking fears of escalation as it warned Yemen could face the same fate as Iran. Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen have come under repeated Israeli strikes since the Iran-backed rebels began launching missile and drone attacks on Israel, declaring they act in solidarity with Palestinians over the Gaza war. In its latest raids, Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel struck "targets of the Houthi terror regime at the port of Hodeida" and aimed to prevent any attempt to restore infrastructure previously hit. The renewed strikes on Yemen are part of a year-long Israeli bombing campaign against the Houthis, but the latest threats have raised fears of a wider conflict in the poverty-stricken Arabian Peninsula country. "Yemen's fate will be the same as Tehran's," Katz said. His warning was a reference to the wave of suprise strikes Israel launched on Iran on June 13, targeting key military and nuclear facilities. During the 12-day war, the United States carried out its own attacks on Iran's nuclear programme on June 22, striking facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. A Gulf official told AFP there were "serious concerns in Riyadh... that the Israeli strikes on the Houthis could turn into a large, sustained campaign to oust the movement's leaders". Any Israeli escalation could "plunge the region into utter chaos", said the official, requesting anonymity because he cannot brief the media. 'Heavy equipment' The Houthis' Al Masirah television reported "a series of Israeli air strikes on the Hodeida port". A Houthi security official, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told AFP that "the bombing destroyed the port's dock, which had been rebuilt following previous strikes". On July 7, Israeli strikes hit Hodeida and two nearby locations on the coast, with targets including the Galaxy Leader cargo ship, captured in November 2023, which the Israelis said had been outfitted with a radar system to track shipping in the Red Sea. A Yemeni port employee in Hodeida said the strikes targeted "heavy equipment brought in for construction and repair work after Israeli airstrikes on July 7... and areas around the port and fishing boats". An Israeli military statement said that the targets included "engineering vehicles... fuel containers, naval vessels used for military activities" against Israel and "additional terror infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime". It said the port had been used to transfer weapons from Iran, which were then used by the Houthi rebels against Israel. The statement added that Israel had identified efforts by the Iran-backed rebels to "re-establish terrorist infrastructure at the port". The Houthis recently resumed deadly attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, targeting ships they accuse of having links to Israel.
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Putin meets top Iranian adviser Larijani, discusses Middle East tensions, nuclear issues
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting on Sunday with Ali Larijani, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Russian state-run RIA news agency reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The two discussed the escalating situation in the Middle East and issues surrounding Iran's nuclear program.
Asharq Al-Awsat
3 days ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Arab Parliament Speaker Condemns Israeli Escalation in Gaza, Calls for Immediate Action
Arab Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Yamahi strongly condemned Israel's dangerous and bloody escalation against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Saudi Press Agency said on Sunday. In a statement, Al Yamahi described the systematic starvation and deadly siege in Gaza, leaving vulnerable populations to face death, as a full-fledged crime occurring before a silent world. He voiced calls on the international community to shirk its moral, legal, and humanitarian responsibilities towards a people facing annihilation through mass starvation, a scenario deemed unbearable to human conscience. Al Yamahi also condemned the Israeli occupation forces' bombing of places of worship in Gaza, describing it as a war crime and holding the occupying forces fully responsible for the attack. He urged the international community to take immediate and effective action to halt the aggression, open urgent and sustainable humanitarian aid corridors, and hold occupation leaders accountable as war criminals.
Japan Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Times
Syria believed it had green light from U.S. and Israel to deploy troops to Sweida
Syria's government misread how Israel would respond to its troops deploying to the country's south last week, encouraged by U.S. messaging that Syria should be governed as a centralized state, according to eight sources familiar with the matter. Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops and on Damascus on Wednesday in an escalation that took the Islamist-led leadership by surprise, the sources said, after government forces were accused of killing scores of people in the Druze city of Sweida. Damascus believed it had a green light from both the U.S. and Israel to dispatch its forces south despite months of Israeli warnings not to do so, according to the sources, which include Syrian political and military officials, two diplomats, and regional security sources. That understanding was based on public and private comments from U.S. special envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack, as well as on nascent security talks with Israel, the sources said. Barrack has called for Syria to be centrally administered as "one country" without autonomous zones. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on private diplomatic discussions but said the United States supported the territorial unity of Syria. "The Syrian state has an obligation to protect all Syrians, including minority groups," the spokesperson said, urging the Syrian government to hold perpetrators of violence accountable. In response to questions, a senior official from Syria's ministry of foreign affairs denied that Barrack's comments had influenced the decision to deploy troops, which was made based on "purely national considerations" and with the aim of "stopping the bloodshed, protecting civilians and preventing the escalation of civil conflict." Damascus sent troops and tanks to Sweida province on Monday to quell fighting between Bedouin tribes and armed factions within the Druze community — a minority that follows a religion derived from Islam, with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Syrian forces entering the city came under fire from Druze militia, according to Syrian sources. Subsequent violence attributed to Syrian troops, including field executions and the humiliation of Druze civilians, triggered Israeli strikes on Syrian security forces, the Defense Ministry in Damascus and the environs of the presidential palace, according to two sources, including a senior Gulf Arab official. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel intervened to block Syrian troops from entering southern Syria — which Israel has publicly said should be a demilitarized zone — and to uphold a longstanding commitment to protect the Druze. Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has vowed to hold accountable those responsible for violations against the Druze. He blamed "outlaw groups" seeking to inflame tensions for any crimes against civilians and did not say whether government forces were involved. The U.S. and others quickly intervened to secure a ceasefire by Wednesday evening. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the flare-up as a "misunderstanding" between Israel and Syria. On Saturday, Rubio called on the Syrian government's security forces to prevent jihadis from entering and "carrying out massacres" in the south of the country. "If authorities in Damascus want to preserve any chance of achieving a unified, inclusive and peaceful Syria ... they must help end this calamity by using their security forces to prevent ISIS and any other violent jihadists from entering the area and carrying out massacres," Rubio said in a statement posted to X. A Syrian and a Western source familiar with the matter said Damascus believed that talks with Israel as recently as two weeks ago in Baku had produced an understanding over the deployment of troops to southern Syria to bring Sweida under government control. Netanyahu's office declined to comment in response questions. Israel said Friday it had agreed to allow limited access by Syrian forces into Sweida for the next two days. Soon after, Syria said it would deploy a force dedicated to ending the communal clashes, which continued into Saturday morning. Joshua Landis, head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, said it appeared al-Sharaa had overplayed his hand earlier in the week. "It seems that his military staff misunderstood the backing of the U.S. It also misunderstood Israel's stand on the Jabal Druze (in Sweida) from its talks with Israel in Baku," he said. A bedouin fighter stands while holding his weapon after sectarian clashes escalated on Saturday in Syria's predominantly Druze region of Sweida, with machine gun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire, in Sweida, Syria, on Saturday. | REUTERS A Syrian military official said correspondence with the U.S. had led Damascus to believe it could deploy forces without Israel confronting them. The official said U.S. officials had not responded when informed about plans for the deployment, leading the Syrian leadership to believe it had been tacitly approved and "that Israel would not interfere." A diplomat based in Damascus said Syrian authorities had been "overconfident" in its operation to seize Sweida, "based on U.S. messaging that turned out not to reflect reality." U.S. envoy Barrack has said publicly and in private meetings in Damascus that Syria should be "one country," without autonomous rule for its Druze, Kurdish or Alawite communities, which remain largely distrustful of the new Islamist-led leadership. That distrust has prompted Druze factions and a major Kurdish force in northeast Syria to resist Syrian army deployments, and demand their own fighters be integrated into the army as wholesale units only stationed in their territory. Landis said it appeared al-Sharaa had understood Barrack's statements against federalism in Syria "to mean that the central government could impose its will on the Druze minority by force." Syria in Transition, an independent monthly journal, citing well-placed sources, said that Syrian authorities misunderstanding of messaging by the U.S. and Israel resulted in the deployment of troops to Sweida. The senior Gulf official said Damascus had made a "big mistake" in its approach to Sweida, saying troops had committed violations, including killing and humiliating Druze. The nature of violence handed Israel an opportunity to act forcefully, the Gulf official and another source said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, an independent monitoring group, said on Friday the death toll from the violence had reached at least 321 people, among them medical personnel, women and children. It said they included field executions by all sides. Reporters were able to verify the time and location of some videos showing dead bodies in Sweida, but could not independently verify who conducted the killings or when they occurred. A regional intelligence source said al-Sharaa had not been in control of events on the ground because of the lack of a disciplined military and his reliance instead on a patchwork of militia groups, often with a background in Islamic militancy. In sectarian violence in Syria's coastal region in March hundreds of people from the Alawite minority were killed by forces aligned with al-Sharaa. With more blood spilled and distrust of al-Sharaa's government high among minorities, the senior Gulf Arab official said there are "real fears that Syria is heading towards being broken up into statelets." The official from the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs said the Sweida operation was not aimed at revenge or escalation, but at preserving the peace and unity of the country. Syrian troops were ready to re-engage to end the communal violence there "whenever appropriate conditions arise, including clear guarantees from the United States that Israel will not intervene," the official said, speaking before the Israeli announcement. Israel initially lobbied the United States to keep the country weak and decentralized after Bashar Assad's fall. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump met with al-Sharaa, saying he would lift all U.S. sanctions, and nudged Israel to engage with Damascus even though much of Israel's political establishment remains skeptical of the new Syrian leadership. A State Department spokesperson said on Thursday that the U.S. "did not support" Israel's strikes on Sweida last week. The attacks also came as a shock to some Americans in Syria. Hours before Israel struck the capital city on Wednesday, executives from three U.S.-based energy companies arrived in Damascus for a day of meetings. The lead member and organizer, Argent LNG CEO Jonathan Bass, said he had been sufficiently reassured by Washington that the violence unfolding in Sweida would not escalate to Damascus. They were pitching an energy project to Syria's finance minister when Israel struck.
