UK prepares emergency evacuation plan for Britons caught in Middle East | EUROtoday

The UK has launched an enormous operation to help a whole lot of hundreds of British nationals within the Middle East as Iranian missile strikes rock the area.

Officials on the Foreign Office are understood to be engaged on plans for potential evacuation routes ought to airspace within the Gulf stay closed.

Iran has launched strikes at international locations throughout the Middle East in retaliation to US-Israeli airstrikes which have killed a whole lot of individuals in main cities, together with Tehran. Three US service members have been killed and 5 critically wounded as a part of US president Donald Trump’s navy motion in opposition to Iran, whereas a number of individuals have been killed in Israel.

British nationals are presently being suggested to remain the place they’re and observe the directions of native authorities and monitor the Foreign Office’s journey recommendation, which officers count on to alter quickly.

Those in Bahrain, Israel, Palestine, Qatar and the UAE have been urged to register their presence with the Foreign Office on-line.

More than 76,000 individuals, largely within the UAE, have already registered their presence, a scheme the federal government has used earlier than to offer pressing updates to individuals affected by worldwide crises.

Ambassadors within the UAE and Qatar additionally stay in frequent contact with main airways.

Airline passengers are dealing with journey chaos for days as all UK flights to and from the Middle East have been grounded till at the very least Monday, stranding hundreds of travellers.

The scale of the consular operation is unprecedented, with the “register your presence” scheme by no means beforehand dealing with so many individuals in so many alternative international locations.

Efforts to help British nationals, pushed by international secretary Yvette Cooper and minister Hamish Falconer, come as US and Israeli fight operations in opposition to Iran entered their second day on Sunday.

The Israeli navy mentioned it had continued to hit websites in central Tehran following the dying of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme chief, in an airstrike on Saturday morning.

Iran has vowed to retaliate with “devastating blows” and has fired missiles at lots of its neighbouring international locations in addition to US navy targets.

Fresh waves of blasts have been heard in Dubai and within the Qatari capital of Doha for a second day on Sunday as defence forces intercepted missiles headed their approach in response to US and Israeli assaults on Saturday.

The UAE’s ministry of defence mentioned that 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and 541 drones had been launched from Iran in the direction of the nation up to now. Three individuals have been killed and 58 injured, the authorities mentioned.

JS Anand, founder and CEO of Leva Hotels, which has a flagship lodge in Dubai, instructed The Independent that the assaults had triggered “panic and uncertainty” amongst residents and company.

Israeli authorities reported Iranian missiles had killed 9 civilians in Beit Shemesh, close to Jerusalem, whereas the US navy’s Central Command mentioned three American service members had been killed and 5 others severely wounded on Sunday.

Central Command gave no additional particulars about these killed or wounded, however has rejected Iranian claims that the plane provider USS Abraham Lincoln had been hit by ballistic missiles.

It is known that no British nationals have been killed or injured up to now within the battle.

However, defence secretary John Healey mentioned some 300 UK troops had been inside “a few hundred yards” of an Iranian strike on a base in Bahrain.

Two missiles have additionally been fired within the path of Cyprus, the place hundreds of UK personnel are stationed, though the federal government doesn’t imagine these have been intentionally focused on the British bases there.