UK declines to say whether US-Israeli strikes on Iran are legal

The UK declined to say whether it believes US-Israeli strikes on Iran are legal as missile attacks continued across the Middle East on Sunday.

Explosions were heard in multiple Gulf states as Iran vowed to carry out its “most intense operation” ever in retaliation for the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The 86-year-old Mr Khamenei had ruled Iran for almost 37 years when he was killed in the US-Israeli attack on Saturday morning, throwing the future of his country into doubt.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf pledged that Tehran would deliver “such devastating blows” in response, while US President Donald Trump warned Iran that the US would use “a force that has never been seen before” if it continued its retaliation.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had carried out further air strikes in the Iranian capital to “establish aerial superiority and pave the path to Tehran”.

The UK has played no part in the US-Israeli strikes, but Defence Secretary John Healey warned on Sunday that Iranian retaliation could put UK personnel and allies at risk.

Speaking to Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Mr Healey said Iranian missiles and drones had landed within “a few hundred yards” of some 300 British troops at a base in Bahrain, while two missiles had been fired in the direction of Cyprus, where thousands of UK personnel are based.

He said: “We don’t believe they were targeted at Cyprus, but nevertheless, it’s an example of how there is a very real and rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region.”

British aircraft have been deployed on defensive operations, flying from Cyprus and Qatar and “taking down” drones and missiles “menacing” UK bases and allies, Mr Healey added.

He also confirmed to Times Radio that a British “counter-drone team” in northern Iraq had shot down Iranian drones in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has told its staff in Pakistan to restrict their movements amid anti-US protests that have resulted in at least nine deaths.

Although he said “few people” would mourn the ayatollah, the Defence Secretary repeatedly declined to say whether the UK backed the US-Israeli strikes that killed him, or if the UK believed they were legal.

Asked six times by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg whether the UK backed the strikes or thought they were legal, John Healey declined to give a direct answer.

He said: “Britain played no part in the strikes on Iran.

“We share, however, the primary aim of all allies in the region and the US that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon.”

He later added: “It is for the US to set out the legal basis of the action that it took.”

The Government, along with France and Germany, has condemned Iran’s retaliation and urged Tehran to return to the negotiating table.

But other allies have gone further, with both Canada and Australia saying they supported the US “acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon” and continuing to threaten “international peace and security”.

The Government’s reluctance to say whether it backed the strikes has drawn criticism from parties to both its left and right.

Branding the attacks “illegal and unprovoked”, Green Party leader Zack Polanski told the BBC: “We’ve got a Defence Secretary saying that diplomacy is the long runway we need but won’t condemn Donald Trump when he attacks a country and assassinates its leader.

“That’s the law of the jungle. That’s an end to international law.”

But Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel said the Government should have been “more proactive” in supporting the strikes.

She said: “Why were some of our bases not used? And was the British Government asked about use of our military bases in the defensive strikes that took place?”

The Government has so far declined to say whether the US asked for permission to use British bases for the strikes, including Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.