Middle East minister denies that the government has been sitting on the fence over Iran
MIDDLE East minister Hamish Falconer has denied that the government has been sitting on the fence and refusing to back the US and Israeli military action against Iran.
He said on GB News: “The British government is not on the fence. Throughout the weekend, we have been taking action to shoot down drones.
“Let me be clear, as the Prime Minister set out yesterday, we were not part of the first wave of attacks by Israel and the United States. We had a preference for a diplomatic process on resolving the issues like the nuclear program.
“But in the face of reckless Iranian attacks, and you’ve just described some of them, there are attacks which are threatening hotels, airports, of course, the many hundreds of thousands of British nationals who are in the region, we assess it’s about 300,000, more than 100,000 have been in touch with the Foreign Office over the course of the weekend, in the face of those missile attacks, that recklessness on the part of the Iranians, we have given specific and limited agreements to our United States allies in order that action can be taken against those missile launches.
“We are supporting the Americans to take action against the missiles and capability of the Iranians to threaten our allies, our nationals and our interests. That is a specific and limited agreement which we’ve kept under review and if we have further updates, we will bring them forward in the usual way.”
He added: “Those missile launches are clearly a threat to the region, to our Gulf allies, to our nationals, and that is why we’ve taken the steps that the Prime Minister announced last night. This will enable action more efficiently against those launches.”
Asked how Britons might be evacuated from the region, he said: “Those nationals are obviously our top priority. As the minister responsible for consular affairs, let me say a little bit directly to those people.
“I know that this is a distressing time with lots of fast moving events. Clearly, while airspace is closed, there is going to be considerable disruption to the region. We will get you home as quickly and as safely as we can. Please do register your presence if you’re in one of the affected countries. Follow our travel advice. Make sure you follow the advice where relevant of local authorities, and we will provide information which is absolutely up to date.
“Of course, we are putting in place contingency plans for all eventualities, but I do not wish to get ahead of events this morning, the key advice for British nationals in the region is to register your presence where that’s relevant and follow our travel advice.”
On the threat of Iran-linked terror attacks, he said: “So we always keep our terror threat level under review. We have, as I’ve said to Parliament before, we have seen threats which emanate from Iran and attempted attacks on UK soil.
“We have effective domestic security arrangements which have foiled those attacks, and some of those attacks are now subject to a legal process, I would say to anyone considering any action in the UK of that nature, we are a capable country, more than capable of detecting threats and taking action against them, and we will announce those measures, if any further required in the usual way.”
