Iran has the missiles to hit London, Israel claims

The Times – Iran has the missiles to hit London, Israel claims

Two missiles launched by Iran at a British military base in Diego Garcia — believed to be the furthest Iran has fired — were a warning message to Europe, diplomatic and intelligence sources have told The Sunday Times.

Sir Keir Starmer condemned Iran for “lashing out” after Tehran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles towards Diego Garcia, the joint US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean located roughly as far from Iran as London or Paris.

The Israel Defence Forces confirmed that it was “the first time since the start of Operation Roaring Lion” that Iran had fired a missile that could reach a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000km). “We have been saying it: the Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat … with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin,” the IDF said.

It is not known for certain that Iran possesses a missile capable of reaching Diego Garcia. It is understood that the first missile was intercepted between Thursday night and Friday morning, before the UK expanded permission for its joint base in Diego Garcia, and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, to be used for “specific and limited defensive operations”.

The first missile was intercepted by a missile fired from a US warship, according to reports. The second fell after travelling 1,990 miles, some 400 miles from the US-UK outpost in the Chagos Islands, where about 100 UK personnel are based.

The UK had previously allowed US forces to use its bases only for defensive operations to prevent Iran from firing missiles that put British interests in the region at risk.

On Friday the UK went further by agreeing to allow the US to use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian sites which are being used to target ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial shipping channel. Downing Street insisted the basis of permission remained “collective self-defence”.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, accused the prime minister of “covering up” Iran’s unsuccessful attack on Diego Garcia by not informing the public sooner. “Keir Starmer has dithered and delayed on the Iran conflict from the outset,” she said.

The US military is not permitted to use RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus for the purpose of self-defence, including for the degrading of Iranian missile capabilities, Starmer confirmed after a call with the Cypriot president on Saturday.

Other developments:

• Iran’s ability to threaten the Strait of Hormuz has been “degraded” by thousands of US strikes on sites used to store Iranian anti-ship cruise missiles and intelligence support sites, US Central Command said.
• Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the Natanz nuclear facility was attacked on Saturday morning. The IDF denied involvement in the strikes.
• Oil tankers shipping Iranian crude oil through the strait are broadcasting hidden codes to allow them to bypass Tehran’s maritime blockade.

Responding to the news that the US would be able to use some British bases, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi claimed Starmer was “putting British lives in danger”. President Trump said the UK “should have acted a lot faster”.

A former head of Israeli intelligence’s Iran desk told The Sunday Times that the strikes demonstrated unprecedented ballistic capability within Iran. Danny Citrinowicz, who works for the Tel-Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, said: “Today, it’s the missiles; tomorrow it could be nuclear. I think what is really worrying is that the Iranian leadership has no checks and balances right now.”

Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US and Israeli attacks on the first day of the war, did not want to give western countries any further reasons to pressure Iran to reduce its arsenal, Citrinowicz said.

“The Iranians limited themselves to 2,000 km not because of technological restraints, but because it was part of Khamenei’s policy to be very cautious in everything related to the firepower of Iran,” he added.

A diplomatic source said hitting Diego Garcia appeared not to be Iran’s objective — rather, the missiles were launched as a warning to the UK and European allies who have been indicating support for US and Israeli operations to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran wants Europe to stay out of the conflict,” the source said, adding that the missile appeared to be a type of weapon not previously known to be in Iran’s arsenal. Iran has threatened to use force against any country that allows use of its soil for American operations. “If the missile was launched from northern Iran, their range [could] cover all of Europe,” the source said.

RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire is about 2,700 miles from Tehran.

Citrinowicz agreed that the missiles could have been fired as a warning to the UK, but expressed doubt Tehran would target Europe even with the unpredictability of the new supreme leader, Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei. “It’s not that they think that tomorrow they will attack London or Paris, but I think that for them it’s another element that enables them to build the deterrence,” he said.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he was considering “winding down” the war because the US was getting “very close” to completing its objectives, which have remained ambiguous since the war started three weeks ago.

It also emerged on Friday that the Pentagon has drawn up plans for deploying thousands of American troops to the region.

General Sir Richard Barrons, a former Joint Forces Commander, said on Saturday the US had to choose between announcing victory and stopping the war, or escalating it. “I don’t think anyone really conceives of an invasion and an occupation of Iran — it’s the size of western Europe — but they‘re going to be tempted perhaps to do raids on places like Kharg Island or to blockade,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today.

An assault on Kharg Island would threaten the regime’s main source of oil revenue.

Iranian news agencies reported US-Israeli air strikes on an empty passenger ship at the island on Saturday afternoon as well as strikes on a passenger terminal in the southern Iranian port of Bushehr.

The Ministry of Defence said: “Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies. RAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region.”

On Saturday, Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, reiterated that the UK would only offer defensive support to the US, saying: “We will not be drawn into a wider conflict. We were not and continue not to be involved in offensive action, and we’ve taken a different view from the US and Israel on this.

“But we are supporting defensive action to support our interests. That includes recognising Iran’s escalating threats to international shipping, as well as their threats to our Gulf partners.”

Badenoch called on the government to “come clean” over the details of the attempted attack on Diego Garcia.

She said: “Now we find out, from the media and not the prime minister, that the British base on Diego Garcia has been the target of Iranian missile attacks.

“As we saw with Peter Mandelson, Starmer’s first instinct is always to cover up the truth. On Wednesday he attacked me at PMQs for calling for the proper defence of our bases, now we learn that as he did so our base in the Chagos Islands was being targeted by Iran.

“The prime minister needs to immediately come clean about the details of this latest attack on British troops and explain why the public weren’t informed sooner.”

At least 640 strikes were carried out across 17 Iranian provinces on Friday alone, resulting in at least 68 casualties, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

Overall, more than 8,000 Iranian military targets have been struck, including 130 Iranian vessels, Admiral Brad Cooper of US Central Command said. Israel confirmed it had targeted ballistic missile production sites on Friday, “severely” harming the regime’s “ability to continue producing essential components”.

On Saturday night Israel’s emergency services said that they were responding to a “large number of casualties” after an Iranian missile strike in Arad, southern Israel. At least 84 people were wounded, of which ten were seriously injured.

The attack came hours after a strike on Dimona, also in the south, about 13km from the Negev Nuclear Research Centre. A total of 33 people needed hospital treatment, with a 10-year-old boy in serious condition.

The IDF is investigating the failure to intercept Dimona missile, The Times of Israel reported.

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