More UK jets being sent to the Middle East as Starmer calls for de-escalation

More RAF jets are being sent to the Middle East, Sir Keir Starmer has said after Iran threatened to target UK, French and US bases if the countries help stop strikes on Israel.

The Prime Minister said further military assets are being deployed to provide “contingency support” across the region amid escalating hostilities between the two long-time foes.

Additional refuelling aircraft have been deployed from UK bases and more fast jets will be sent over, it is understood.

The UK already has RAF jets in the Middle East as part of Operation Shader.

Speaking to reporters travelling with him on a visit to Canada, Sir Keir declined to rule out intervening in the conflict entirely but made clear he would continue pressing for de-escalation and said the “intense” developments over the weekend would be discussed in detail at the G7 summit.

“These are obviously operational decisions and the situation is ongoing and developing and therefore I’m not going to get into the precise details, but we are moving assets, we’ve already been moving assets to the region, including jets, and that is for contingency support across the region. So that is happening,” he said.

Sir Keir added: “Our constant message is de-escalate, and therefore everything we’re doing, all discussions we’re having are to do with de-escalation.”

Asked whether he would rule out UK involvement, he said: “I’m not going to get in to that.”

Britain last announced it had deployed fighter jets in the region in last year, when the Government said British aircraft had played a part in efforts to prevent further escalation.

It comes after Iranian state media said Tehran had warned it would target US, UK and French bases in the region if the countries help Israel thwart Iran’s strikes, according to reports on Saturday.

Iran launched missile and drone attacks on Israel overnight after a series of Israeli strikes on the heart of Tehran’s nuclear programme and armed forces.

Tehran’s UN ambassador said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded in Israel’s attacks, while its response was said to have killed at least three and wounded dozens.

A Cobra meeting of high-level ministers was convened on Friday afternoon to discuss the situation. The same is not expected on Saturday but Whitehall officials were expected to be meeting.

The conflict was ignited by early morning Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear bases on Friday.

Israel said the barrage was necessary before Iran got any closer to building a nuclear weapon, although experts and the US government have assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon.

Iran retaliated with waves of drones and ballistic missiles, with explosions lighting up the skies over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Both the UK and the US have insisted they were not involved in the Israeli strikes and that the country acted unilaterally.

Sir Keir would not be drawn on whether the UK was given notice of Israel’s attack after reports that the country was not forewarned following the Government’s decision to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers last week.

“In relation to Israel, I had a good and constructive discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday, and that included discussions about the safety and security of Israel, as you would expect, between two allies,” he said.

Asked if Britain had been told in advance of Israeli’s military plans, the Prime Minister said: “I’m not going to go into what information we had at the time or since.

“But we discuss these things intensely with our allies. But I’m not going to get into precisely what we knew, because it’s a constant flow of information between our allies, and between us and the US.”