Youngian wrote:This death hasn't been confirmed. I'm starting to wonder if Trump deserved the FIFA Peace Prize.Reuters says 'yes'.
At least the UK PM doesn't have Mandelson whispering in his ear to bomb his way to Trump's side.
I understand the Dubai Resident "expats" are leaving the country in droves.
He did not criticise the US and Israeli strikes, saying it was “for the US to set out and explain” whether its action was legal. But he also refused to be drawn on the UK having declined use of its military bases for the attacks.I wonder what these F-35As were up to at Lakenheath on Thursday, then?
Sir Keir Starmer backed Donald Trump’s attempts to force a regime change in Iran but faced questions over why his government had refused to allow the United States access to its military facilities in the region.
In Downing Street, the prime minister said: “The United Kingdom played no role in these strikes, but we have long been clear: the regime in Iran is utterly abhorrent. They have murdered thousands of their own people, brutally crushed dissent and sought to destabilise the region.”
He said Iran “must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. That remains the primary aim of the United Kingdom and our allies, including the US.” A Ministry of Defence source said no British bases were used during the strikes.
On Sunday morning John Healey, the defence secretary, declined to comment on whether the UK had refused permission for the US to use British bases.
He told Sky News’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “What I can say is we’ve stepped up alongside the Americans. We’ve stepped up our defensive forces in the Middle East.”
Healey said UK forces in the region were “taking down” drones and missiles launched by Iran and revealed that Iranian strikes had landed within “a few hundred yards” of British troops in Bahrain. Two missiles were also fired in the direction of Cyprus, he said.
The White House had considered using the British-owned military base on Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands, for the strikes. In February President Trump posted on social media: “Should Iran decide not to make a Deal [on its nuclear programme], it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the Airfield located in Fairford [the Gloucestershire home of America’s fleet of heavy bombers in Europe], in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous Regime.”
However, Starmer is understood to have previously warned Trump that the UK would not allow the use of British facilities for any pre-emptive military action. Under a long-held agreement, the US would have to first request to use any UK sovereign military bases before conducting military operations.
Trump ultimately chose to launch Saturday’s attacks from a series of bases across the Middle East and at least one of the two aircraft carriers stationed in the region. The disagreement reportedly soured the relationship between Starmer and the American president, leading Trump to reverse his earlier support for the UK’s deal to lease the Chagos Islands from Mauritius.
The reason for Britain’s position to refuse co-operation from its military installations flows primarily from a legal opinion drafted for the prime minister by Lord Hermer, the attorney-general, that emphasised the primacy of international law.
In his Downing Street speech on Saturday, Starmer reasserted this position when he said that British fighter jets had been launched “as part of co-ordinated regional defensive operations to protect our people, our interests and our allies as Britain has done before in line with international law”.
Before the last round of military strikes against Iran, as part of Operation Midnight Hammer in June last year, advice drafted by Lord Hermer is reported to have advised the government that any UK military involvement must be purely defensive in nature to remain within the law.
In the run-up to Operation Midnight Hammer, in which the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, a number of B-2s were deployed to Diego Garcia, although the attack was eventually carried out by planes flying non-stop from an airbase in Missouri.
On Saturday, Lord Ricketts, the UK’s former national security adviser, said it is unlikely the strikes complied with international law. “None of this, I think, is in any sense legal in a way that the UK would recognise,” he told the BBC.
“There was really no imminent threat to the US. This is action that they chose to undertake, or were dragged into it by the Israelis.”
But others suggested there is a legal justification that Britain could pursue if it chose to support the Americans and Israelis. Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, said Trump had already set out “terms where the United Kingdom could support him in a mutual defence position where we would come to the air or support of an ally on request”.
He said it is for the US to “lay out its evidence to the British government,” after which it could argue they are under “an imminent threat and we would like your support”.
Malcolm Armsteen wrote: ↑Tue Feb 24, 2026 9:54 pmBlack American incomes did well under Trump in his first term. His "don't take any shit" style is popular with lots of men, across all races. Much less among women, especially black women.
How the actual shuddering fuck do 22% of Black American men still support Trump?
Regime change involves two elements: 1, you decapitate the old regime; 2, you create a new one that suits you better. Air power can achieve the first, but it can’t achieve the second. How do the US and Israel get a better regime in Iran — better for them, better for Iranians?
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Kelly was asked if he agrees with Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican senator, that the world is now safer because the supreme leader of Iran is dead.Compared with the routine contortions by Republicans, that seems pretty mild.
Kelly replied: “Well, I agree with that part. I mean, it’s a good thing that the supreme leader is gone and some of the folks around him.”
But he also delivered a withering assessment of the White House’s preparation. “Hope is not a strategy,” Kelly warned, questioning whether the administration had any serious plan for the aftermath. Air power can destroy targets, he added, but fully eliminating capabilities without boots on the ground is “incredibly challenging”.
- By Andy McDandy
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