New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has approved the use of British military bases by the U.S. for what the U.K. calls defensive strikes against Iran, in a continuation of his predecessor Keir Starmer\u2019s policy even as U.S. President Donald Trump ramps up his war.<\/p>\n
Starmer led a meeting of senior ministers and officials on Friday to discuss British policy following the resumption of U.S. operations earlier this month, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
Ministers at that meeting decided to continue the existing policy that bases at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, could be used by U.S. planes flying missions aimed at countering the Iranian missile threat and sites used to target the Strait of Hormuz, the people said.<\/p>\n
Burnham, who became prime minister on Monday, was informed of the discussion and agreed with the decision taken, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity discussing security matters.<\/p>\n
He will continue the previous government\u2019s policy when it comes to approving U.K. bases for what are called defensive U.S. strikes, the people said. It means British bases are likely to be used for some of the current round of American operations.<\/p>\n
The decision emerged after the 10th day of renewed U.S. action. U.S. Central Command said it targeted Iranian military command centers, launch sites and air defenses overnight.<\/p>\n
Still, the decisions taken by Starmer proved politically difficult as he came under pressure from the British left to prevent the bases from being used, and from Trump to expand the U.K.\u2019s role supporting the war.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s remarks threatening to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants have also concerned U.K. officials, who worry about the legal implications of any such strikes.<\/p>\n
Burnham is likely to face criticism from the left-leaning\u00a0Green Party and the Liberal Democrats, who both oppose the use of the bases because, in their view, it makes the U.K. complicit in war crimes.<\/p>\n
The new premier\u2019s decision may help explain Trump\u2019s relatively warm comments about him entering 10 Downing Street.<\/p>\n
Burnham spoke to Trump by phone after becoming premier Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prime minister outlined the U.K.\u2019s commitment to securing the movement of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d according to a readout from his office.<\/p>\n
Trump posted favorably on Truth Social about the call. \u201cWe discussed North Sea Oil, Trade, the Military Alliance, Demining of the Hormuz Strait, and many other topics. The call was interesting, and went very well,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Prime Minister Andy Burnham has approved the use of British military bases by the U.S. for what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1103696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[8916,748,32,393,4884,774,839,1144,712,15689,1017,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1103695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-britain","tag-donald-trump","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-northern-ireland","tag-scotland","tag-u-k","tag-u-s","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1103695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1103695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1103696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1103695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1103695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}