{"id":452006,"date":"2026-03-01T13:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/452006\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T13:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T13:07:08","slug":"us-israel-stikes-on-iran-tehran-fired-missiles-towards-uk-bases-in-cyprus-says-defence-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/452006\/","title":{"rendered":"US-Israel stikes on Iran: Tehran fired missiles towards UK bases in Cyprus, says defence secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"US-Israel Iran fired two missiles in the direction of Cyprus, where the United Kingdom maintains military bases, defence secretary John Healey said, warning that the retaliation from Tehran showed signs of being indiscriminate.Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News, Mr Healey said: \u201cWe are pretty sure they weren\u2019t targeted at our bases.\u201d However, he added that \u201cit shows how indiscriminate\u201d the Iranian retaliation is. <\/p>\n

Iran Drone Strike Footage Surfaces As IRGC Claims Hit On U.S. Fifth Fleet Base & Warship<\/p>\n

He also confirmed that 300 UK military personnel were close to missile targets in Bahrain. \u201cSome of them were in several hundred yards of the missile strikes,\u201d he revealed on Sky News.Follow live update on US-Israel stikes in Iran<\/a>The comments came a day after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that the UK had ordered \u201cplanes in the sky\u201d over the Middle East to carry out defensive operations. Mr Healey repeated the prime minister\u2019s call for Iran to halt its actions and \u201csteps back from its increasing uncontrolled indiscriminate attacks in the region\u201d and \u201cgives up its weapons programs.\u201dThe escalation follows waves of missile strikes launched by the United States and Israel on Iran in what they described as pre-emptive operations targeting military infrastructure and senior leadership, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.Speaking on Sky News, Mr Healey said: \u201cFew people will mourn the Ayatollah\u2019s death.\u201dHe added that he was more concerned about the wider regional repercussions. Citing Iran\u2019s activities, he referred to 20 terror plots on UK streets organised by Tehran, the deaths of tens of thousands of its own citizens and the supply of 50,000 drones to Russia for use in Ukraine.\u201cMake no mistake that this is a regime which harasses other countries and can never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon,\u201d he said on Sky News.Mr Healey declined to comment on whether the US and Israeli strikes were lawful. Asked about the legality of the action, 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.”Pressed again, 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 added that \u201ceverything the UK does is within international law\u201d.The defence secretary also declined to say whether Britain could be drawn into direct operations alongside the United States and Israel.Describing current UK activity, he told Sky News: “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.”He said Britain was reinforcing regional stability as part of coordinated defence efforts across the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iran fired two missiles in the direction of Cyprus, where the United Kingdom maintains military bases, defence secretary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[163450,59,57,58,585,1805,420,50,36232,163451,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-452006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-ayatollahs","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-iran","tag-john-healey","tag-keir-starmer","tag-news","tag-sky-news","tag-tehran-fired-missiles-towards-uk-bases","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}