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UK diplomatic staff withdrawn from Iran as US considers strike
LONDON — Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said staff have been pulled out of Iran ahead of a potential strike by the U.S.
In a statement on its website posted Friday, the ministry said: “Due to the security situation, U.K. staff have been temporarily withdrawn from Iran. Our embassy continues to operate remotely.”
The FCDO continues to advise against all travel to Iran, noting that there is “a heightened risk of regional tension.”
The U.S. State Department earlier authorized nonessential employees at the American Embassy in Israel to leave the country due to “safety risks.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is currently weighing a military strike on Iran in a bid to stamp out its nuclear program.
White House officials are weighing the options available, with Israel seen as a key partner in any military action.
Trump insisted in his State of the Union address that he wants to figure out a diplomatic solution with the Middle East country.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy, but one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they are by far— to have a nuclear weapon,” he said at the State of the Union address Tuesday.
Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said earlier this week: “There’s a political process ongoing between the U.S. and Iran, which the U.K. supports. Iran must never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and our priority is security in the region.”
The Times reported last week that Starmer blocked a request by Trump for U.S. planes to use British bases to attack Iran, telling him that it would be in breach of international law.
The U.S. has in the past used RAF Fairford, in Gloucestershire, and the British overseas territory of Diego Garcia, in the Indian Ocean, to carry out strikes in the Middle East.
However, Trump and Starmer are currently at loggerheads over the British leader’s plan to hand the Chagos Islands over to Mauritius and lease back the joint U.K.-U.S. military base there.
