The British Defence Secretary has warned that the Iranian regime is responding to U.S.-Israel attacks with “indiscriminate” strikes across the Middle East, including targeting British military assets in the region.
“The concern now is that this regime is carrying out retaliatory attacks in an increasingly indiscriminate and widespread manner,” John Healey told Sky News on Sunday.
Healey said there were 300 personnel at the British base in Bahrain, which was targeted on Saturday by Iranian missiles and drones. Some of the personnel were “within a few hundred yards” of where the rockets and drones landed, he added.
Also on Saturday, two missiles were “fired in the direction of Cyprus,” he said.
“We do not believe they were aimed at Cyprus,” he clarified. “But it is nonetheless an example of the very real and growing threat from a regime that strikes broadly across the region, which requires us to act… defensively.”
The Defence Secretary also described the Iranian regime as a “source of evil” in the region, citing a range of ways in which it has “threatened” other countries and oppressed its own citizens.
“Twenty terrorist plots against the UK, sponsored by Iran; tens of thousands of young protestors killed on the streets in recent months in Iran; 57,000 Iranian drones deployed by Russia in Ukraine; proxy groups destabilising countries across the region,” Healey said.
