Dr. Akhtar Gulfam Editor-in-Chief, Daily Dawn, Director News Dawn TV
London: According to the British newspaper Daily Telegraph, US President Donald Trump said in an interview that he was ‘very disappointed’ with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer because he did not allow the US to use Diego Garcia airbase to attack Iran.
According to reports, Britain initially refused to allow the US to carry out airstrikes from its military installations, but on Sunday evening, Starmer said that he was accepting his request that if the US wanted to carry out a ‘defensive’ attack on Iranian targets, it could use British bases.
In the interview published on Monday, Trump told the British newspaper that it took Starmer a ‘very long time’ to change his mind.
“It’s probably never happened before between our two countries, I think they were concerned about the legality of it,” he said.
Trump said Starmer should have allowed the US to use Diego Garcia, a strategically important US-British air base in the Indian Ocean, from the start, because Iran is “responsible for killing many people in your country.”
Britain was not involved in the joint US-Israeli air strikes on Saturday that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has been targeting Gulf states with missiles since the attacks on Iran began, and on Sunday, an Iranian-made drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus. The attack caused minor damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was now “beneficial” that the US would be able to start operations from Diego Garcia, while also criticizing the deal that Starmer had reached regarding the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the same archipelago where Diego Garcia is located.
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