London, MINA – Britain’s Middle East minister has explained the UK’s role in the US-Israeli war on Iran, saying the country was ready for the conflict and had key military equipment in place, which was rapidly put into action to respond to Tehran’s attacks on Gulf states.
Hamish Falconer told The National that the UK had “pre-positioned a whole range of stuff, both people and equipment” from early January, but that some hardware that has “proven most important and effective” was not necessarily what people “would recognise as obvious military equipment”.
The government has been criticised for not having any Royal Navy warships in the Arabian Gulf or the Mediterranean at the start of the conflict, but Mr Falconer pointed out that British jets, radar, missile defence systems and other equipment were in place to defend against drones.
“I’m incredibly proud of the pilots who are flying Typhoons and F-35s, but there’s also other really important equipment that has been able to take down drones, [including] ground-based radar and missile defences,” he said.
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An additional 1,000 British troops were also stationed in the region before the war broke out, with many working in air defence and surveillance roles.
But as Iran continues its missile and drone attacks on the Gulf, Mr Falconer said, “nobody is pretending that this is a challenge that is easy to be perfectly on top of”.
“It is important that we deliver messages clearly and directly to the Iranians. We consider their attacks on our friends and partners utterly reckless,” he added.
Mr Falconer pledged that Britain would also seek to introduce new technology to the region to help defend against the drone strikes. []
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