London, March 23 (IANS) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was no indication that mainland Britain was being targetted by Iran, while stressing the need to protect British interests and avoid further escalation in the Middle East.
"We carry out assessments all the time in order to keep us safe, and there's no assessment that we're being targetted in that way," Starmer told reporters on Monday while visiting a school in southeast London, according to The Guardian.
He made the remarks when asked whether Britain could become a target of Iran following weekend reports that Iran had fired two ballistic missiles at the US-British military base Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago.
Starmer also said that any attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz required careful consideration and a viable plan, Xinhua news agency reported. He said his number one priority was to protect British interests and de-escalate tensions, and the government would discuss every possible lever to address cost-of-living pressures arising from the Iran conflict.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in London on Saturday, joining a growing wave of demonstrations across Europe against US and Israeli military strikes on Iran.
In the British capital, a sea of demonstrators marched from Russell Square to Whitehall, waving banners and chanting slogans condemning the attacks. Their voices echoed through central London as concerns over the escalating conflict spilled onto the streets.
Meanwhile, a nuclear-powered Royal Navy submarine has arrived in the Arabian Sea, capable of launching cruise missile attacks on Iran, British media reported Saturday, quoting military sources.
The submarine, HMS Anson, is fitted with Tomahawk Block IV land-attack missiles and Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes, and is believed to be in the deep waters of the northern Arabian Sea, Daily Mail said.
This means that British forces have the capacity to launch attacks on Iran if the conflict escalates, it added.
If authorised by the Prime Minister, the report said, HMS Anson would be given the order to fire, and would rise close to the surface and dispatch four missiles.
Britain on Friday agreed to allow the United States to use British bases to carry out "operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz," while reaffirming its commitment to "not getting drawn into the wider conflict."
--IANS
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