\u2018About Two Weeks\u2019: New project takes aim at Trump\u2019s shifting Iran war timeline<\/a><\/p>\nThe source familiar called the latest threat a \u201creal world incident.\u201d It is unusual that the US military would move the bombers back to their home stations instead of deploying them to another base in the region, the official said.<\/p>\n
Vice President JD Vance said Monday that the move was made \u201cout of an abundance of caution,\u201d suggesting it was a response to a potential threat from Iran even as he declined to detail the specific concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we\u2019re going to be as careful as we possibly can be,\u201d Vance told reporters. \u201cWe do feel with some confidence that the Iranians are, you know, they\u2019re trying to do what the Iranian state has done for 49 years, which is engage in acts of terrorism against the United States and against a lot of other people as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, downplayed the removal of the US bombers, saying he would not \u201cdirectly tie\u201d the planes\u2019 redeployment to the alleged Iranian plot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason why you guys are focused on how many planes are at Fairford is because of the threat that happened last week. But it\u2019s not unusual to see rotations happen and movement of assets to different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployments, people changing out and new people coming in, new planes coming in, old planes going out,\u201d Rubio told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday.<\/p>\n
Rubio added that the United States had worked closely on security with the UK for a long time, including on the Fairford investigation.<\/p>\n
A Downing Street spokesperson said that the UK government would not comment on foreign nations\u2019 military operations. Asked about safety concerns by residents living near the base, the spokesperson told reporters that the UK has \u201cthe tried and tested approaches to defend our bases around the country, but not just that, throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK Ministry of Defense also declined to comment on the operations or capabilities of other nations.<\/p>\n
The Royal Air Force base at Fairford has been used to deploy US B-1 bombers involved in the war against Iran and is an operating location for US Global Strike Command, which is tasked with managing long-distance strikes.<\/p>\n
CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas said it was likely several dozen bombers were stationed at Fairford, adding that it was unusual to move all the aircraft.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt speaks to the credibility and the seriousness of the threat overall to the base that we\u2019re talking about,\u201d he told Ben Hunte on CNN Newsroom.<\/p>\n
The relocation of the bombers comes amid the investigation into the alleged plot. British police on September 27 arrested five men on suspicion of terror and explosives offenses close to the airbase.<\/p>\n
The men \u2013 identified only as British nationals between the ages of 23 and 25 and from the London area \u2013 were quickly released on bail, with police confirming no explosives were found in three vans at the scene. Their release sparked criticism from President Donald Trump, who said \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have done that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A 25-year-old British-Iranian dual national was also arrested on Thursday in connection with the alleged plot.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said last week there are \u201cstrong indications\u201d Iran was involved in the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will say more in due course, but we can confirm our belief that we believe Iran to have played a part,\u201d he told the BBC on Sept 30.<\/p>\n
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Iran says it is awaiting \u2018definitive\u2019 US response despite Trump rejecting latest proposal<\/a><\/p>\nBurnham\u2019s remarks appeared to support the US\u2019 assessment that the incident involved a foreign actor. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said \u201cthe hands of a foreign actor\u201d were involved in the alleged plot but declined to provide details in an interview with Fox News last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it ties us to the reality here. We are dealing with elements in the world, and in the case of Iran for example, who have openly threatened to attack American interests globally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iran has denied any involvement in the incident, described the accusations as baseless and summoned the British ambassador in Tehran, Iranian state media reported Thursday. During the meeting, Iran\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi reportedly urged London to revise what he called its \u201cinappropriate approach\u201d toward Tehran.<\/p>\n
The-CNN-Wire\u2122 & \u00a9 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United States moved all of its long-range bombers stationed in the United Kingdom back to their American…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793240","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\/793240","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=793240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}