Britain’s military presence in the Middle East – and how it could be dragged into war
The British government confirmed on Monday that the RAF base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, had been hit in a drone strike. The resumption of US and Israeli air attacks on Iran – and Iranian reprisal strikes on its neighbours – also highlights the risks to around 300,000 British citizens in the Persian Gulf.
And there is clearly a danger of wider, direct UK military involvement in what appears to be an escalating regional war. Following the launch of “Operation Epic Fury” – the US and Israel’s coordinated strikes across Iran – on Saturday, the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, confirmed that RAF aicraft were flying missions to protect allies in the region from Iranian retaliation.
Starmer has also allowed the US to use UK military bases in the Middle East, strictly for “defensive” strikes on Iranian missile sites. He initially refused to allow the US to use the joint military base at Diego Garcia, prompting criticism from Donald Trump. The prime minister said his position changed as it became clear Iran’s retaliatory strikes in the region were putting British lives at risk.
Read more: Iran has been attacked by US and Israel when peace was within reach
The UK’s armed forces have long had a presence across the Middle East. Bahrain hosts the United Kingdom Naval Support Facility, which supports Operation Kipion, the Royal Navy’s longstanding maritime security mission in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. This operation dates back to the Armilla Patrol during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. The base and its 300 personnel were close to the Iranian missile strike that targeted the US Fifth Fleet’s headquarters on February 28.
Operation Kipion has effectively been suspended as the Royal Navy has withdrawn its two vessels from the Gulf. The frigate HMS Lancaster was decommissioned in December 2025, and the minesweeper HMS Middleton left the Gulf the week before US and Israeli airstrikes began, to return to the UK.
The RAF has a joint squadron with the Qatari Emiri Air Force – 12 Squadron – which is currently deployed to the emirate. One of the RAF’s Typhoon jets with 12 Squadron shot down an Iranian drone launched against Qatar (which also hosts a US air base at Al Udeid) on March 1.
Oman has longstanding defence ties with the UK dating back to the establishment of its armed forces – initially under British command – in July 1958. It has frequently hosted British army and RAF exercises. The port of Duqm has been developed into a logistics hub and a naval base. Britain’s signals intelligence service, GCHQ, also reportedly has three listening posts in the sultanate.
In the wider Middle East and Mediterranean region, the Royal Navy has been an active participant in Operation Prosperity Guardian. This is a US-led mission to protect commercial shipping passing in and out of the Red Sea via the Bad el Mandab Strait from missile and drone attacks by the Houthis. The Houthis are aligned with Tehran and have targeted shipping bound for Israel since November 2023.
Britain also has two Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), with a GCHQ listening post reportedly at Ayios Nikolaos, part of Dhekelia.
As part of the Five Eyes alliance related to intelligence-sharing, GCHQ closely coordinates its eavesdropping operations with its US counterpart, the National Security Agency.
Future UK involvement
The Labour government’s position is that British military assets are being used to support the defence of the Gulf states against Iranian reprisal attacks. But, as I have previously written, the issue of whether Britain should support US military action against Iran is politically controversial.
There is very little domestic support for Britain actively supporting Operation Epic Fury. A YouGov poll taken February 20 found 58% oppose allowing the US to launch air strikes Iran from RAF bases in the UK. And yet, figures on the right, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, have accused the Labour government of weakness for not getting more involved.
Since seemingly refusing to initially allow the US to use Diego Garcia, Starmer has announced that the US can use British bases to target Iranian ballistic missiles, on the grounds that these pose a threat to the UK’s Arab allies. The Greens and Liberal Democrats have called for Starmer to put this decision to a vote in parliament.
Starmer has emphasised that Britain will not join in “offensive action”. But Tehran is unlikely to acknowledge this distinction between “defensive” operations and more “offensive” ones targeting its leadership, armed forces and suspected nuclear facilities.
The Iranian missile strike on the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain demonstrates that British military personnel could potentially be at risk from an Iranian attack, even if indirect. The two ballistic missiles fired in Cyprus’s direction may well have been aimed at the USS Gerald Ford and its task group, which is currently in the eastern Mediterranean.
Fundamentally, however, the Islamic regime in Iran is profoundly Anglophobic. It presumes that the US and Britain will always collaborate with each other – just as they did when the CIA and SIS orchestrated the coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadeq in July 1953.
It is therefore possible that Tehran has assumed British complicity in the launching of Operation Epic Fury, and may well target the UK’s military assets in the Gulf and beyond as a result. Whatever the UK government’s intentions, Britain may find itself drawn into a war it had no say in starting.
Geraint Hughes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.