Sir Keir Starmer has so far refused to allow US aircraft to deploy to the British-owned base in the Chagos Islands, Diego Garcia, before a potential attack on Iran.

Don't expect a war to end as quickly this time.

The gambit was successful. At least twice, the president weighed ordering an attack on Iran, only to be dissuaded by aides from moving forward. But America now appears to be on the brink of war with Iran again. And this time, instead of acting as a deterrent, the Pentagon’s war plans are being used to draw up options for the president to consider.

If the United States attacks Iran, Tehran says it won’t just respond — it will target every American base and military asset across the Middle East. And this isn’t just a fiery speech or a social media post.

Bilateral agreements that were signed with UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan (although the latter has never ratified the agreement). They marked the first formal recognition of Israel, since Egypt did so in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Since then, progress has stalled.

Iran has proven capable of operating proxies on European soil. Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, warned in October: “MI5 has tracked more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in just the one year since I last stood at this podium. The UK was among the first to call out this wave of Iranian transnational aggression.”

Iran and the U.S. traded threats and warnings even as negotiators sat down to discuss a deal to avert a war, but Tehran says "we now have a clearer path ahead."

Israel struck key Iranian nuclear sites to curb bomb development amid rapid uranium enrichment and rising tensions.

"President Trump's first option ​is always diplomacy. But as he has shown ... he is willing to use the lethal force of the ​United States military if necessary," Karoline Leav