Starmer says US strikes on Iran received’t be launched from Cyprus after row over UK bases | EUROtoday

A British army base in Cyprus hit by an unmanned drone strike firstly of the Iran conflict won’t be utilized by the US to focus on Tehran’s missile websites after a rare worldwide row.

Sir Keir Starmer informed the Cypriot president that RAF Akrotiri wouldn’t be among the many UK bases from which the US might launch strikes, hours after it emerged Iran had fired missiles on the joint US-UK Diego Garcia base within the Indian Ocean.

As a part of the identical cellphone name on Saturday, Nikos Christodoulides demanded that Sir Keir open discussions about the way forward for the British bases on the Mediterranean island.

While Cypriot politicians have demanded the return of the sovereign UK bases beforehand, that is believed to be the primary time {that a} Cypriot president has formally requested talks since independence in 1960.

It comes simply days after he described them as a “colonial consequence”, amid fears over the island’s safety because the battle within the Middle East escalates.

On Friday, the UK gave Donald Trump the inexperienced gentle to make use of British bases to strike Iranian missile websites concentrating on the Strait of Hormuz.

Downing Street mentioned any such motion would nonetheless quantity to “collective self-defence”, insisting it might not imply the UK was drawn into the broader battle.

But the bottom in Cyprus won’t be included, the PM mentioned.

A Downing Street spokesperson mentioned the PM has spoken to Mr Christodoulides on to convey the message.

He added that Sir Keir “reiterated that RAF Akrotiri would not be involved in the UK’s continuation of its agreement with the US to use UK bases in collective self-defence of the region, including for the degrading of Iranian missile capabilities”.

In an announcement following the decision, the workplace of President Christodoulides mentioned on X, previously Twitter: “During the discussion, with regard to the British bases in Cyprus, President Christodoulides referred both to challenges that have arisen and to lessons learned from the management of the crisis thus far. In this context, he presented a proposal for the initiation of relevant discussions.

On Saturday, it emerged that Tehran had fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia, but neither hit, the Wall Street Journal and the semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr reported. One of the missiles was shot down by a US warship, while the other failed in flight, according to the newspaper, which cited multiple officials.

The foreign secretary Yvette Cooper condemned what she said were “reckless” assaults by Iran that threaten British pursuits and allies.

The Ministry of Defence additionally mentioned that RAF jets and different UK army property have been persevering with to “defend our people and personnel in the region”.

Questions over the way forward for the Cypriot base would pile strain on Sir Keir Starmer, who’s already going through criticism over his choice handy over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

The archipelago is house to the important thing UK-US Diego Garcia base, which might be leased again to the UK as a part of the deal.

The drone that attacked RAF Akrotiri was Iranian-made however launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, in line with Cyprus’s overseas minister Constantinos Kombos.

It brought on minimal injury and didn’t end in any casualties. Further drones have been intercepted and the Ministry of Defence has quickly moved households from the bottom.

British bases in Cyprus have been established as a part of a negotiated independence deal in 1960 and are the UK army’s primary jumping-off level for operations within the Middle East.