Cyprus<\/a> after the attack.<\/p>\nThe Cypriot government has also expressed concern that the drone was able to hit the base, suggesting that the presence of the British base on the island should now be reviewed.<\/p>\n
The vessel had been undergoing a six-week refit in Portsmouth but was made seaworthy in six days, with crews working 22-hour days. Opposition parties said the UK government should have anticipated the US-Israeli conflict with Iran and how Tehran would retaliate, and moved assets closer to the region in advance.<\/p>\n
Healey also confirmed reports over the weekend that Iran had attempted to launch two strikes on the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no assessment that we are being targeted in the UK in that way. We have the resources, we have the alliances in place in order to keep the United Kingdom safe from any kind of attacks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Healey said there were now an extra 500 air defence personnel in Cyprus. \u201cAs more military capabilities are committed to the eastern Mediterranean, we\u2019re working closely with the Republic of Cyprus to coordinate the contribution of allies, including the US, France and Greece, to reinforce the security of Cyprus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cRAF and navy pilots have now racked up nearly 900 flying hours in defence of Cyprus, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. We have more jets in the region than at any time in the last 15 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
HMS Dragon has a Sea Viper missile system, which intercepts drones and missiles, which the Ministry of Defence said would \u201cplay a vital role in safeguarding UK assets and interests in the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n
Healey confirmed that the prime minister had authorised the use of UK bases for the US military to launch defensive strikes against specific Iranian targets, including their missile sites and capabilities that threatened the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
The strait, which is a major route for global energy shipping, has been near impassable in recent weeks with vital energy infrastructure damage.<\/p>\n
Healey said Iran was \u201cholding the strait of Hormuz hostage by laying mines, targeting ships, including Red Ensign vessels, and putting lives in danger\u201d and said the UK was deploying military planners into US Central Command to develop options to reopen the strait.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are determined that the UK plays a leading role in securing the strait so commercial ships can move freely and confidently again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HMS Dragon has arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, three weeks after an Iranian-made drone hit the British base…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-491327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491327","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=491327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}