The UK government has confirmed that United States forces are authorised to use British military bases only for limited defensive strikes against Iranian missile facilities, according to a series of parliamentary answers from the Ministry of Defence.
Responding to multiple questions from Labour MP Richard Burgon, Defence Minister Al Carns said permissions for foreign forces to operate from UK bases are assessed individually and must meet legal and policy requirements.
“Permissions to utilise UK military bases by foreign nations are considered on a case-by-case basis,” Carns said. “All UK support to allies for operational purposes considers the legal basis and policy rationale for any proposed activity.”
The minister said the current agreement allowing the United States to use British bases is narrowly defined and relates specifically to defensive action against missile facilities linked to Iranian attacks in the region.
“The agreement allowing the US to use UK military bases is for specific and limited defensive action against missile facilities in Iran which are involved in launching strikes at regional allies,” Carns stated.
Burgon had asked whether each use of UK bases would be assessed to ensure compliance with international law, whether there were limits on the types of operations conducted, and whether the UK government would have the authority to approve or refuse individual targets.
Carns did not confirm whether London would approve individual targets, citing security considerations around operational planning. “For operational security reasons, we do not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military operations,” he said.
The minister also ruled out publishing a list of U.S. strikes conducted from British territory following the Prime Minister’s announcement on 1 March that the United States would be permitted to use UK bases in connection with defensive operations linked to Iran.
“For operational security reasons, we do not offer comment or information relating to foreign nations’ military operations,” Carns repeated in response to a separate question on disclosure.
There’s plenty of liability if London approves targets and would usa be happy with that??? What information would London have access too, to confirm targets. This is not good for uk.
Considering Starmer’s stance on Iran, he’d better get his defence chiefs together and chart a possible route around US/UK defence programmes, starting with the new deterrent subs and AKUS. Trump is going to make Starmer’s government suffer going forward, and worse still, put in place measures that will have ramifications beyond Trump’s era. Long memories are an American trait, and the UK had better be prepared to go it alone with its own ballistic nuclear weapons and other critical systems.
Trump doesn’t know what day of the week it is and he already basically f**ked everything in NATO. Donald Trump will be dead and buried long before a piece of US technology sets foot on an AUKUS submarine.
The F35 is an issue however if the US tries to kick the UK and presumably everyone else in Europe out of the program then US F35 production will come to a complete halt for the best part of a decade if not permanently.
The Trump administration already lost on tarrifs and it’s about to loose the house and senate. Half the people in the current trump administration will be in jail in a few years time.
Somehow I’m just not concerned about Trumps rath for not letting the USA use Diego Garcia for the first day of the war. Remember when he was pissed at us for sending soldiers to Greenland? Does he remember?
I honestly don’t know who would be concerned.
And if the US starts conducting operations out of Diego Garcia, or out of the UK for that matter, who exactly is going to stop them? I am not sure that, when push comes to shove, Trump could care less about “official approval” from Starmer.
As for AUKUS, who is to say it will ever be built.
Iran is playing the “cause as much chaos as we can” card, and they might be on to a winner.
Closing the Straits of Hormuz is resulting in a global economic panic.
Question is : Is it possible to re-open the straits with firepower?
Given the IRGC still has:
1000s of small fast attack craft
1000s of sea mines
Migdet submarines
Many truck launched Anti-ship missiles.
Feels like a big job to reduce/eliminate all of the above.
Somehow I can’t see the mighty US forcing the straits with the Armada of three LCS they have in theatre and four Arleigh Burkes.
They couldn’t keep the Red Sea open against some rebels with twice as many ships.
The USA are clowns playing at war right now, their commander and chief has them so spread out so thin they have no chance of achieving any kind of strategic effect. They are little more than an Epstein distraction and little school girls are dying because of this.
Iran knows that putting $1 on the price of gas will have the USA surrendering quicker than trump can say TACO
Yes, Iran chaos strategy has been effective. Sea mines would block the shipping lanes and take time to clear its their ‘ trump’ card. Also neighbours not particularly striking back even when attacked. Bombing de salination plants very wilful destruction.
Yes, seems the USN focus on, how many missile silos can I strap on my warship, failed to realise that sea mines and submarines are the biggest threat. Who knew that the airforce blowing some shit up would not have one of the world’s most tyrannical regimes rolling over in five minutes.
Who could have predicted that they woukd respond in the exact way everyone has expected them to for the last 47 years by shutting down the worlds largest oil transit route that runs passed their front door.
🫡🇺🇸
I don’t understand why America needs to use British airbases around the world for this operation.
I remember Steven Miller just six weeks ago saying America was a super power and didn’t need any Allie’s.
I suggest we let them try the Iran campaign with no Allie’s, see how far two aircraft carriers with 70 X F18 swordfish on them and eight destroyers gets them facing a county with 70 million people and 4,000 ballistic missiles.
Trump was trying to hint today that it might have been the UK, Australia or the Netherlands that blew up that girls school with tomahawks.
We need to stay as far way from these clowns and their nonsense war as possible.
U.S./Israel are running out of targets. So it becomes yet another ‘no fly zone’ war.
That seems unlikely to secure the Straits of Hormuz from random low and slow drone attacks fired by ‘Fred in a shed’
‘Quantity has a quality all of its own’. The liberation of Kuwait 1991, quantity and quality, was textbook, led by a General who told the Political Executive the way it had to be.
Can the Straits be secured from.the air alone? Unlikely. Air/Naval now requires to transition to Land/Air.
‘Ou est la masse de manoeuvre?’
“Aucune!’
Plenty of B1/52s coming into Fairford at the moment.
Hope that we don’t get involved further. When the US inevitably gets bored and walks away, leaving chaos in its wake, we won’t have to have spent Billions of our defence money and lost lives fruitlessly for very little recognition. Vietnam not Afghanistan, this time, thank you very much.
We do not possess any formations or equipment with which to get further involved. So we cannot assist with freeing up the Straits of Hormuz. That will send fuel prices soaring, affecting our already high cost of living. It will also lead to increased inflation which will increase government debt repayments. That will lead to yet higher taxes.
What can we do to solve the fundamental problem at the Straits of Hormuz? Nothing: Britain powerless, impotent to defend the interests of its citizens, its own servicemen under fire without even the Ground Based Air Defence with which to defend themselves.
We may not be interested in war, but war is very much interested in us…and we are hopelessly unprepared…
A defensive bombing run by B52s, really? Just who is bullshitting who here? Trump can’t even spell Hormuuuuuuuuuz let alone have any idea what it is and where it is. He has completely destroyed the Iranian Navy at least 5 times this week alone. Now he is showing computer game vids of C-130s being blown up despite the fact they haven’t flown for years most likely. Meanwhile Mr I Hate America is packing his 30 year old Zodiac with explosives and changing the plug on his clapped out Mercury outboard in his garden shed waiting for the first dumbass American warship to get too close and then………………..kerboom.
Yes dear
Starmer telling lies to himself to fool himself
What a load of garbage this article is.
“Defensive strikes”?
Nothing defensive about it – you triggered the war with them and bombed them first, and you continue to encroach and bomb their territory. It’s like saying ‘defensively shot Keir Starmer in the head by shooting him first’. What Orwellian claptrap. Those are offensive bombing runs, absolutely nothing defensive in nature about them, and lying like you did during the previous Iraq war won’t save you from being involved in war crimes. What the hell were you defending by bombing a children’s school, anyway?
Do you not understand what you’re reading?