Two missiles from Iran were fired in the direction of Cyprus, where the UK has military bases, the defence secretary has revealed.
John Healey said the government did not believe they were targeting the bases intentionally, but said “it shows how indiscriminate” the Iranian retaliation to Saturday’s US-Israel strikes was.
He also said that 300 UK military personnel were close to targets that were hit in Bahrain.
John Healey told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “This is a really serious and deteriorating situation, (with) rising risks of increasing Iranian indiscriminate retaliatory attacks.
“Let me give you a couple of examples. Yesterday, we had 300 personnel on that Bahrain base that was attacked by Iranian missiles and drones, some of them within a few hundred yards of where they landed.
“We had two missiles fired in the direction of Cyprus. 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, and that requires us to act.”
The revelations came a day after Sir Keir Starmer said the UK had ordered “planes in the sky” over the Middle East on defensive operations to protect our allies.
Mr Healey repeated the prime minister’s calls for Iran to end its missile strikes and “steps back from its increasing uncontrolled indiscriminate attacks in the region” and “gives up its weapons programs.”
It came as the US and Israel launched waves of missile strikes on Iran in preemptive actions, taking out military infrastructure and the country’s leadership, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mr Healey added: “Few people will mourn the Ayatollah’s death.”
The defence secretary said he was now more concerned about the repercussions of the attacks on Iran in the wider region.
He noted the 20 terror plots on the UK’s streets organised by Iran, the death of tens of thousands of its own citizens and the supply of 50,000 drones to Russia to attack Ukraine.
“Make no mistake that this is a regime which harasses other countries and can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
Mr Healey declined to comment on whether the US-Israeli strikes on Iran were legal.
He told Sky News: “No one who has seen the way that Iran has menaced us and sponsored terror around the world, been a source of instability in the region, is developing a nuclear weapons program, can be under any doubt about the character of this regime, and the threat it poses.”
Asked again whether the US action was legal, he said: “That is for the US to set out and explain. It’s not for me, as defence secretary of the UK, I’m here to speak for the UK.
“I can speak for the very active participation that we have in coordinated defence across the region.”
He noted that “everything the UK does is within international law”.
But Mr Healey also declined to say whether the UK may be drawn into joining the US and Israel in direct operations on Iran.
Describing UK operations, Mr Healey said: “When our UK planes fly from Qatar, they are protecting against any missiles or drones directed towards Qatar.
“When they fly from Cyprus, they’re doing the same for Cyprus.
“But of course, when our planes are in the air and they see things, missiles or drones directed towards other countries, they’ll take them down.
“So when I talk about Britain playing a role in reinforcing regional stability as part of co-ordinated regional defensive operations, that’s what I mean.”
