In a concerning twist, Iran military leaders have threatened to attack British forces in the Chagos Islands if American president Donald Trump follows through on his threat to target the Middle Eastern nation.
Mr Trump threatened a military response against Iran if it did not make a deal with the US over its nuclear programme. The Telegraph report that replying to the news, a senior Iranian military official said that Tehran would strike the joint US-UK naval base on Diego Garcia in response to any US attack.
The unamed source said: “There will be no distinction in targeting British or American forces if Iran is attacked from any base in the region or within the range of Iranian missiles.
“When the time comes, it won’t matter whether you’re an American, British, or Turkish soldier – you will be targeted if your base is used by Americans.”
It has been reported by Iranian state media said that Tehran would strike the Diego Garcia facility with ballistic missiles and suicide drones in retaliation for any US “hostile action against the Iranian nation”.
In an unsettling warning, they said: “Iran possesses adequate weapons for such an attack from its mainland, such as newer versions of the Khorramshahr missile that have an intermediate range, and the Shahed-136B kamikaze drone with a range of 4,000km [2,485 miles].”
The reasoning for being a Tehran target is because the base is the home to a strategic bomber force capable of hitting Iran’s underground facilities. The B-2 Spirit is the bomber force in question.
The bomber with its long range, payload and advanced stealth features is feared by Iranian forces as a perfect weapon for dropping big bombs on their underground facilities.
“In such a scenario,” said Iranian state media,”the bomber would certainly take off from NSF Diego Garcia, making the 3,800km-away base a target for an Iranian retaliatory operation.”
Satellite imagery has shown at least three B-2 Spirit bombers arriving at the outpost this week.
A British government spokesman said: “We condemn these threats in the strongest terms. The UK Government continues to work with partners across the region to encourage de-escalation. The base on Diego Garcia is vital to UK and US security and plays a crucial role in maintaining regional and international security.”
Other targets include other US military locations across Asia and the Middle East, including a naval base in Bahrain close to a Royal Navy support facility. However, Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos Archipelago – British sovereign territory that the Government wants to hand over to Mauritius.
This in and of itself has proved controversial. The base, which has been a joint UK-US facility since the 1970s, is believed to have roughly 4,000 US and British personnel on the island, made up of servicemen and civilian contractors.
Since returning to office, Trump has restored his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, aiming to stop it obtaining a nuclear weapon by driving its oil exports down to zero. He has also expressed interested in negotiating a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with the Islamic regime.
On Friday, he warned Iran that “very bad things will happen” if Tehran fails to agree.
He said: “I sent them a letter just recently, and I said: you have to make a decision, one way or the other, and we either have to talk and talk it out or very bad things are going to happen to Iran.
“I don’t want that to happen. My big preference – and I don’t say this through strength or weakness – my big preference is, we work it out with Iran. But if we don’t work it out, bad, bad things are going to happen to Iran.”
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has banned direct talks with the US, saying: “No problem will be solved by negotiating with America.”