{"id":487016,"date":"2026-03-21T04:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:07:17","slug":"uk-okays-us-use-of-its-bases-to-strike-iranian-threats-to-shipping-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/487016\/","title":{"rendered":"UK okays US use of its bases to strike Iranian threats to shipping in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LONDON \u2014 The British government gave authorization on Friday for the United States to use military bases in Britain to carry out strikes on Iranian missile sites that are attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<p>British ministers met on Friday to discuss the war with Iran and Iran\u2019s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Downing Street statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defense of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this week Britain would not be drawn into a war over Iran. He initially rejected a US request to use British bases for the strikes on Iran, saying he needed to be satisfied that any military action was legal.<\/p>\n<p>But Starmer modified his stance after Iran conducted strikes on British allies across the Middle East, saying that the United States could use RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia, a joint US-UK base in the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>US President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Starmer since the conflict started, complaining he was not doing enough to help him.<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP24277482598469-1-e1772553403201.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3767949\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AP24277482598469-1-e1772553403201-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tThis undated image released by US Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. (US Navy via AP)<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Trump said there were \u201csome countries that greatly disappointed me\u201d before he singled out Britain, which he said had once been considered \u201cthe Rolls-Royce of allies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Downing Street statement on Friday called for \u201curgent deescalation and a swift resolution to the war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Opinion polls in Britain suggest widespread skepticism about the war, with 59% of those surveyed by YouGov saying that they were opposed to the US-Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tYou appreciate our wartime journalism\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"400\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DH-new-headshot-circular.png\" class=\"attachment-square_large size-square_large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"crm-article-popup__counter-wrap\" style=\"display:none\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re really pleased that you\u2019ve read  X Times of Israel articles in the past month.&#13;\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>You clearly find our careful reporting of the Iran war valuable, at a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.<\/p>\n<p>Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically during this ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n<p>So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you&#8217;ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing\u00a0exclusive content\u00a0available only to Times of Israel Community members.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you,<br \/>David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-up?utm_campaign=dhmatters&amp;utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=article_end_counter&amp;utm_content=1964F6\" class=\"crm-post-module__btn\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-up?utm_campaign=dhmatters&amp;utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=article_end_counter&amp;utm_content=1964F6\" class=\"crm-post-module__btn crm-post-module__btn-mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tJoin Our Community\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"crm_under_btn_link\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/crm.timesofisrael.com\/sign-in?RedirectTo=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fuk-okays-us-use-of-its-bases-to-strike-iranian-threats-to-shipping-in-strait-of-hormuz%2F\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 The British government gave authorization on Friday for the United States to use military bases in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-487016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487016","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=487016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}