You’ve failed us on Iran, Middle East allies tell UK
Bahrain and the UAE join Cyprus in criticising Sir Keir Starmer’s slow response to Tehran’s retaliatory strikes
Britain’s allies in the Gulf and Cyprus have accused Sir Keir Starmer of failing to do enough to protect the region and UK citizens from Iranian missile strikes.
The Times has been told that Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have concerns about the UK’s response to the Middle East conflict. At the same time Cyprus’s high commissioner to the UK said the “least” his country expected was for the government to provide a robust defence of the island that is
home to two British bases.
Britain operates a naval support facility in Bahrain, with about 300 service personnel, which is next to the site of a successful Iranian missile strike on the US Fifth Fleet headquarters. John Healey, the defence secretary, said that the missile had landed less than 200 metres from UK forces.
Gulf nations including the United Arab Emirates were also angered by
the delay in giving the US permission to use joint bases, including Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, to carry out “defence” airstrikes against Iranian missile sites. Starmer eventually gave America approval on Sunday evening.
The public criticisms reflect deep anger among Britain’s allies in the region over its slow response to the Iranian attacks.
While British F-35s and Typhoon aircraft based in Cyprus are flying defensive missions to take down Iranian missiles and drones, HMS Dragon, a UK destroyer, will not set sail for Cyprus until next week because it is being brought out of maintenance and fitted with the right weapons.
One western official said that the proposal to send the ship did not cross the desk of the chief of defence staff until 9.30am on Tuesday — four days after the war started and nearly two days after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone strike. He passed the proposal to ministers and a decision was made shortly after that.
Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters, armed with Martlet missiles capable of dealing with aerial threats, will arrive in Cyprus in the coming days. Kyriacos Kouros, Cyprus’s high commissioner to the UK, said that while the deployment of HMS Dragon was “welcome”, it would take more than a week to arrive.
He contrasted the slowness of the UK response with that of Greece and France, which had announced support for Cyprus earlier. Kouros said: “The French are coming. The least we expect is the Britons to also be present since, as I said, we are not only defending Cypriots on the islands.”
The criticism came after it emerged that Starmer delayed giving his approval for America to use UK bases to attack Iran after a cabinet revolt. The delay from Starmer in approving the use of UK bases is said to have infuriated Gulf nations, particularly the United Arab Emirates, where most of the 300,000 Britons in the region are based.
“There was a feeling that the prime minister had to be dragged there,” a source familiar with the UAE’s concerns said. “It obviously reflects badly in the eyes of the Gulf Cooperation Council.”…….