Starmer sends fighter planes to Middle East after Iran threatens UK

British PM says RAF deployment will provide ‘contingency support’ in the region

UK's Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. PA

Keir Starmer said on Saturday that the UK would deploy more RAF jets to the Middle East after Iran threatened to target British, French and US bases if the countries help stop strikes on Israel.

The UK’s Prime Minister said further military assets are being deployed to provide “contingency support” across the region amid escalating hostilities between the two long-time foes.

Additional refuelling aircraft have been sent to the region from UK bases and more fast jets will be sent over. The UK already has RAF jets in the Middle East as part of Operation Shader.

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Speaking to reporters travelling with him on a visit to Canada, Mr Starmer declined to rule out intervening in the conflict entirely but made clear he would continue pressing for de-escalation and said the “intense” developments over the weekend would be discussed in detail at the G7 summit.

“These are obviously operational decisions and the situation is continuing and developing and therefore I’m not going to get into the precise details, but we are moving assets, we’ve already been moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support across the region. So that is happening,” he said.

“Our constant message is de-escalate, and therefore everything we’re doing, all discussions we’re having are to do with de-escalation.”

Asked whether he would rule out UK involvement, he said: “I’m not going to get in to that.”

Britain last announced it had deployed fighter jets in the region in last year, when the government said British aircraft had played a part in efforts to prevent further escalation.

It comes after Iranian state media said Tehran had warned it would target US, UK and French bases in the region if the countries help Israel thwart Iran’s strikes, according to reports on Saturday.

Both the UK and the US have insisted they were not involved in the Israeli strikes and that the country acted unilaterally.

Mr Starmer would not be drawn on whether the UK was given notice of Israel’s attack after reports that the country was not forewarned following the Government’s decision to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers last week.

“In relation to Israel, I had a good and constructive discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, and that included discussions about the safety and security of Israel, as you would expect, between two allies,” he said.

Asked if Britain had been told in advance of Israeli’s military plans, the Prime Minister said: “I’m not going to go into what information we had at the time or since.

“But we discuss these things intensely with our allies. But I’m not going to get into precisely what we knew, because it’s a constant flow of information between our allies, and between us and the US.”