Sir Keir Starmer has condemned a “reckless” Iranian attack on an oil refinery in Kuwait and confirmed the deployment of Britain’s rapid sentry air defence system to the Gulf country.
In a call with Kuwait’s crown prince, the Prime Minister also discussed co-ordinated efforts to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz oil and gas shipping lane blockaded by Iran in retaliation for the US-Israeli campaign against it.
Tehran fired drones and missiles at targets across the Middle East overnight and on Friday, setting a refinery on fire and damaging a desalination plant in Kuwait.
Meanwhile, the US launched a search for a fighter jet downed in Iran, according to reports, in the first such incident since the start of the conflict.
One crew member has been rescued, US officials told CBS News.
And Donald Trump threatened to hit Iran’s bridges and electric power plants, saying the US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran.”
His comments came after a deadly US air strike on a major suspension bridge near Tehran, which the UN’s humanitarian relief chief Tom Fletcher said constituted a breach of international law.
Former British diplomat Mr Fletcher told the BBC: “You don’t hit civilian infrastructure. That includes hospitals. You don’t hit schools, you don’t hit energy sources, you don’t hit bridges. Those are war crimes.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said on Friday: “The Prime Minister spoke to his highness the Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah this morning.
“The Prime Minister began by condemning the reckless overnight drone attack on a Kuwaiti oil refinery.
“He reiterated that the UK stands with Kuwait and all our allies in the Gulf.
“They discussed the deployment of the UK’s Rapid Sentry air defence system to Kuwait, which will protect Kuwaiti and British personnel and interests in the region, while avoiding escalation into wider conflict.
“Regarding ongoing disruption to global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the Prime Minister and crown prince welcomed the meeting convened by the Foreign Secretary yesterday on a viable plan to reopen the Strait.
“They agreed to continue to work together on this and stay in close contact over the coming weeks.”
Defence Secretary John Healey, on a trip to the region earlier this week, announced that Rapid Sentry, a ground-based short-range missile launching weapon, had arrived in Kuwait, where the RAF’s counter‑drone orcus system is also helping soldiers detect Iranian drones early.
The UK is also sending the Sky Sabre air defence missile system to Saudi Arabia and extending UK Typhoon jets’ action in Qatar, Mr Healey said as he visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain.
In its latest operational update, the Ministry of Defence said RAF Regiment gunners downed multiple Iranian drones overnight, while UK Typhoons and F-35 jets, together with Wildcat helicopters, continued their defensive missions over Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, and Bahrain.
Gulf nations have borne the brunt of Tehran’s reprisals, with thousands of Iranian missiles and drones targeting US military sites and energy infrastructure there.
In the face of ongoing military strikes by the US and Israel, Iran has also tightened its grip on the maritime pinchpoint of the Strait of Hormuz, sending global oil and gas prices skyrocketing.
Britain is leading diplomatic efforts to reopen the vital waterway, after Mr Trump signalled it was up to others to do so.
On Friday, the American leader wrote on his Truth Social platform that “with a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE”, without providing further explanation.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Iran could face further sanctions if the strait remains closed after chairing talks with more than 40 nations from across the world on Thursday.
Ms Cooper declined to say whether Washington was still an ally, stressing that “our job is to take decisions in the UK national interest” and that “we want to see the conflict resolved, concluded, as rapidly as possible”.
Amid worsening transatlantic relations, the US president again mocked Sir Keir as weak over his refusal to be drawn into the conflict with Tehran.
In a video from a private Easter White House lunch, Mr Trump impersonated the Prime Minister as he recounted Sir Keir saying he had to ask his team about sending “two old broken-down aircraft carriers” to the Middle East.
On the downed US jet, the Royal United Services Institute’s Justin Bronk said that images of the debris released by Iranian state media revealed it was an F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft from a US Air Force unit based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK.
Mr Bronk, RUSI’s senior research fellow for airpower and technology, told the BBC’s PM programme: “This is a worthwhile reminder that even in conditions of air superiority, which, by its definition, the US definitely has… there’s not a complete absence of threat.
“And even though there’s been a very, very effective suppression and destruction of air defences campaign, it’s almost impossible to – without fully sweeping with ground forces and taking all of a certain area of territory, which in this case would be huge areas of Iran – it’s not possible to completely eliminate particularly infrared-guided relatively small, mobile surface-to-air missile systems.”
John Bolton, who was national security adviser to Mr Trump from 2018 to 2019, told the same programme that “the shooting down of a US plane is not good news under any circumstances”, but that “it’s remarkable that we’ve gotten through almost six weeks with just this one plane shot down” over Iran.
