Starmer Reverses Course, Will Allow American Use of Indian Ocean Air Base After Iranian Drone Attack Against RAF in Cyprus

Credit the Iranian regime itself with giving the British a reason to approve American warplanes taking off from the British-American base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for missions against targets in Iran. It was only after an Iranian drone hit Britain’s air base on Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean that Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer reversed an earlier ban on use of Diego Garcia for attacks on Iran.An Iranian drone striking the runway of Britain’s Akrotiri base was all it took for Mr. Starmer to change his mind after upsetting President Trump by forbidding any role for Diego Garcia in the war. The base, 3,273 miles east of Tehran, is totally American, but Britain retains ultimate sovereignty over Diego Garcia, the largest island in a string of atolls called the Chagos Islands comprising the British Indian Ocean Territory.Mr. Starmer, as leader of Britain’s Labor Party, gave the impression of wanting it both ways — of opposing the campaign against Iran while preserving the Anglo-American “special relationship” in which Britain has been America’s closest steadfast ally through two world wars.Looking for just the right words after the Iranians fired two drones and a missile in the direction of Cyprus, he said he approved American warplanes taking off from British bases in order “to prevent Iran from firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk.” Even so, he said, American missions had to be “for specific and very defensive purposes.”Mr. Starmer’s approval was obviously reluctant — and far from an endorsement of the American-Israeli campaign. Mr. Trump vented his feelings in an interview with Britain’s Daily Telegraph, saying he was “very disappointed” when Mr. Starmer forbade American planes from flying missions over Iran from Diego Garcia.The Telegraph quoted Mr. Trump as saying Mr. Starmer’s refusal was unprecedented in relations “between our two countries.” Mr. Starmer, he said, “took far too long” to reverse his earlier ban.Mr. Starmer and Mr. Trump were at odds over the base well before the current war. In January, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that Britain’s decision to cede its Indian Ocean territory, including the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius, 1,250 miles southwest, would be “an act of great stupidity.”Mr. Trump did not think the 99-year lease under which the Americans could retain the Diego Garcia base would be a firm guarantee of American control. Although Britain and Mauritius had already agreed on the handover, Mr. Starmer yielded to Mr. Trump by withdrawing the request for ratification of the deal by the British Parliament.The ruckus over the base exposed a much deeper rift between Washington and London, at least as long as the Labour government remains in power. “The ‘special relationship’ has been under severe strain in recent months over the UK’s decision to give up sovereignty of the Chagos Islands and the refusal of European countries to back Trump’s play for Greenland,” said the Guardian, a leading liberal voice in the UK. “When it came to bombing Iran and assassinating its leader, Starmer appears to have had little influence on Trump, who went ahead regardless of the UK’s refusal to let the US use its military bases.”Now, said the paper, Mr. Starmer “finds himself in the diplomatically precarious position of declining to endorse the strikes — which have won support from Canada and Australia — but also refusing to condemn them as many in his party would like to see him do.”Mr. Starmer may find, however, that vacillation on the war — and America’s role — will only weaken his grip on his government while he and his party suffer at the polls.“Cowering Keir Starmer has once again shamed Britain in the eyes of the world,” thundered the conservative Daily Express. “Starmer’s behaviour on Iran has been so utterly spineless, stupid and catastrophically damaging to Britain as to show him desperately unworthy of the office he holds.”

Starmer Reverses Course, Will Allow American Use of Indian Ocean Air Base After Iranian Drone Attack Against RAF in Cyprus

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