UK shot Iran drones to de-escalate conflict, David Cameron says

31 comments

1. [removed]

2. I’m fairly convinced Iran was counting on that.

   They believe Israel bombed their Consulate in Syria, killing several members of their military, and so they felt they had to retaliate. But~~, everyone involved here has nukes~~ [Edit: Iran doesn’t (at least not officially) but that’s all the more reason they’d be cautious about actually hitting Israel] and presumably they’d like to avoid all out nuclear war with a US ally, so they launch a bunch of slow-moving drones, and crucially, they announce it publically hours before they’re due to hit. Iran can be confident that none of the drones will actually reach any targets, but they have publicly retaliated and can now consider the matter settled. Face saved, nobody actually killed and nothing really destroyed.

   Question being if Israel will want to retaliate anyway (bearing in mind that going to war with Iran would probably require them to move some troops out of Gaza).

3. I don’t understand why Biden & Co. won’t allow Israel to retaliate.

   If any country launched hundreds of missiles at Britain or the US mainland you can be sure there’d be retaliation. But Israel is expected just to take the constant attacks.

   It’s also the perfect opportunity to destroy their drone production and help Ukraine.

4. What a great guy, he did so well on Libya it’s great to have him back.

5. It prevented civilian deaths, de-escalated the conflict and gave the RAF target practice. Iran seem happy that they got to throw a tantrum without then having any significant consequences, too

   Seems like a win all round to be honest

6. Iran don’t want a war. But they had to be seen (by the hardliners within Iran mainly) to respond to the embassy bombing. This attack is being reported as having been “well telegraphed”, and the attack was more or less completely thwarted. Cameron has come out strongly urging restraint on that basis, painting it as a defeat for Iran and some kind of revelation about their true nature. I suspect it was all planned like that by Iran in coordination with US and/or other Israeli allies.

7. We did the correct thing – if those missiles killed / hit target’s far more people will die with the whole Middle East thrown into turmoil.

   Sometimes we get it spot on, and this was it.

8. If only we stepped up to help Ukraine in the same way…… make no mistake, if Russia win that war it’s going to make the west / NATO look fucking terrible.

   China would view that as a green light to make moves on Taiwan, and if that happened Taiwan would rather destroy their chip manufacturing plants than let China get hold of them.

9. Aww yeah ww3 is happening and we can all stop pretending…

10. Why are we even getting involved?

    Let’s help the country that just killed British charity workers along with America that wouldn’t even extradite a woman that ran over and killed a British citizen.

    Sure glad we have these friends

11. Surely everyone got what they wanted here. Iran got to fire missiles. Israel is able to say no one was killed. Western powers got some target practice.

    Unless you actively want to kill people, everyone should draw a line under this and move on.

12. And we haven’t been shooting drones for Ukraine because…..

13. But we can’t shoot Russian drones to deescalate the conflict in Ukraine. Okay then.

14. It’s none of our bloody business. Leave them to it.

15. My biggest observation around this is our lack of capability to do balistic missile and drone interception from a distance. RAF required jets to get closer to the interception site while US navy fired SM interceptors from a very safe distance and Israel fired some Arrow interceptors that detonated outside of the orbit. If it was UK homeland that was to be defended against a few hundred projectiles then we would be in trouble without direct assistance from NATO partners. Even the newest additions like Sky Sabre are very close range.

16. Found it amusing, unsurprising, and a tad annoying when he displayed his sheer hypocrisy at calling out the Iranian air attacks while excusing Israel’s attack on the Iranian embassy.

    I think the Iranian regime is terrible for security in the region and peace in general, but to essentially excuse Israel for more war crimes while calling out Iran for doing the exact same thing is why the UK makes itself a target for Islamist extremists, and why Israel acts with impunity.

17. Why didn’t they bother to use their skills to de escalate the Gaza crisis which no doubt would have prevented this in its entirety. Seems a bit one sided when you defend the aggressor but won’t defend the 10s of thousands of innocent men women and children who have been bombed out of house and home as a precursor to this ‘special military operation’

18. 4 missiles (ASRAAM) launched, 3 hits. Not really “de escalation”

19. Money for shooting down drones but no money for funding the NHS, tacking homelessness or help people with rising cost of living. Got it

20. How about Cameron we do the same in Ukraine? We’re saving lives not fighting.

21. Coming out and saying “Iran suffered two defeats” wasn’t particularly deescalating language though; read more like goading, which is not what’s needed.

22. Quick to step in and de-escalate aggression against Isreal but can’t even muster the words ceasefire when it’s the other way around…

23. Anyone who is opposed to deadly drones being shot down needs their heads checked.

    Oh and I’m not buying the argument that Iran never intended to kill any civilians. It’s Iran, the islamic republic that funds Hamas and Hezbollah.

24. David Cameron is a useless git. Nice that they shot down a few drones with 20-40kg of explosives, but what about the 100 ICBMs with 500+ kg explosives each? Those were completely handled by an Israeli system which had NEVER been tested in this kind of situation before.

    This is the first time in history that an anti missile system has this kind of success. There is no way Iran expected this.

25. I don’t believe we did. Because Iran only communicated with Isreal & the US. And I do not like how our media is framing this. The “attack” was done in a way where it was near impossible for anyone to get killed (RIP to the poor 10 year old child who did lose their life)

    Iran told Israel & the US when the attack would be, where it was going to strike & what equipment they were going to use. This whole thing was just theatre. Iran was deliberately going out their way to avoid escalation. If Isreal responds it’s on them.

26. Still trying to work out why we are involved at all? It’s not like we have close ties with Israel. I can’t help thinking that all this incident proves is that the Uk no longer has an independent foreign policy, instead, we are a simple puppet of the USA.

27. The only things that can escalate this (Iran getting directly involved) is Isreal retaliating and politicians talking too much.

    Iran had their embassy destroyed and consulates killed by an Isreali attack in Syria.

    Iran couldn’t stand by and ignore it, for the sake of reputation and face they had to retaliate. They did so, in a way, which quite honestly, they likely knew wouldn’t “achieve” much. A bunch of drones fired at Isreals renowned iron curtain with the backing of sophisticated US and UK technology.

    It was more of a PR exercise on Irans part than an actual attack… They’ve since released a statement saying their response was a legally allowable response under UN law due to Isreals bombing of their embassy. And that they consider the issue closed.

    It’s literally possible to leave to there. We just need everyone to not enter into a dick measuring contest.

28. And why does Mr Brexit feel as though he needs to talk about everything recently?

29. So we’re going to just ignore that none of us agreed to the intervening, the fuck?

    A country that is not attacking us..and we decide to step in with tax payers money without asking them.. bruh..

30. Seen a few reports Meteors were fired, hopefully not at the drones. Might be worth seeing if Martlet could be integrated to the Typhoon force.

31. If they wanted to de-escalate it they would have shot down the Israeli jets that blew up the Iranian consulate in the first place, then Iran wouldn’t have retaliated at all