{"id":491997,"date":"2026-03-24T04:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491997\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T04:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:47:07","slug":"is-iran-really-able-to-strike-london-and-is-the-uk-prepared-for-an-attack-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491997\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Iran really able to strike London, and is the UK prepared for an attack? | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed at the weekend that Iran<\/a> had weapons able to travel about 4,000km (2,500 miles), posing an immediate threat to European cities including London.<\/p>\n

The comments came after it emerged Iran had targeted the joint UK\u2013US military base on Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands.<\/p>\n

What has Israel claimed?<\/p>\n

After reports that Iran had targeted Diego Garcia, the IDF posted claims on social media on Saturday that Tehran had deployed missiles that could travel about 4,000km.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe IDF revealed that the Iranian regime has intentions to develop missiles with a range of 4,000km, which pose a danger to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. The Iranian regime denied this.<\/p>\n

We have been saying it: The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin.<\/p>\n

What do we know about the targeting of Diego Garcia?<\/p>\n

Few details have been released. Those that have been suggest the island, which is about 3,800km from Iran, was not under any genuine threat.<\/p>\n

One of the missiles was shot down by a US warship and the other reportedly failed in flight. The Sunday Times said the latter had dropped 400 miles short of Diego Garcia \u2013 the same distance as from London to Frankfurt.<\/p>\n

Iran does, however, see the island as a legitimate target. It is home to an airbase capable of accommodating long-range US bombers.<\/p>\n

It is strategically valuable to the US and has been used as a launchpad for operations in the Middle East for years.<\/p>\n

It has a large airfield, major fuel storage facilities, radar installations and a deep-water port, and is home to about 2,500 mostly US personnel.<\/p>\n

How has the UK government responded?<\/p>\n

The UK foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, condemned the attack, while stressing that the UK has \u201ctaken a different position from the US and Israel\u201d on the conflict.<\/p>\n

Cooper said ministers wanted to see a swift resolution to the war, and that the government was supporting defensive action against \u201creckless Iranian threats\u201d.<\/p>\n

London initially refused US requests to use UK airbases to attack Iran in late February, in part because ministers had been told it was likely to be in breach of international law.<\/p>\n

It has since allowed the use of British bases for strikes on Iranian sites that target British allies and interests in Gulf states. This scope was expanded<\/a> on Saturday to allow attacks on missile launchers that target commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: \u201cIran\u2019s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.<\/p>\n

\u201cRAF jets and other UK military assets are continuing to defend our people and personnel in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government has given permission to the US to use British bases for specific and limited defensive operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did the UK respond to Israel\u2019s warnings?<\/p>\n

The communities secretary, Steve Reed, told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that no assessment pointed to Tehran trying to attack Europe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not aware of any assessment at all that they are even trying to target Europe, let alone that they could if they tried,\u201d he said. \u201cBut even if they did, we have the necessary military capability to defend this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

On why Israel had issued such a warning, he said: \u201cYou would need to speak to the Israelis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever people might say, the UK is not going to be dragged into this war, but we will take appropriate collective defensive action to keep our nationals and our interests safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is the UK prepared for an Iranian attack?<\/p>\n

Britain is protected by Nato\u2019s ballistic missile defence (BMD) system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The system includes two Aegis Ashore sites in Poland and Romania, part of a larger Nato shield designed to detect, track and intercept ballistic missiles in flight.<\/p>\n

Reed told Sky News there were \u201csystems and defences in place that keep the United Kingdom safe and that will continue to happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Various sources told reporters over the weekend that it was unlikely missiles launched from Tehran would be able to hit London because they would need to pass through a number of air defence systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed at the weekend that Iran had weapons able to travel about 4,000km…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491998,"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-491997","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\/491997","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=491997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}