Iran war enters seventh day as first Government flight brings Britons home

The US-Israeli war with Iran has entered its seventh day as the first Government-chartered plane evacuating British nationals from the region is due to arrive in the UK.

The flight took off from Muscat, the capital of Oman, at 1.36pm GMT on Thursday.

The Titan Airways flight is expected to arrive at London Standard shortly after 1.15am on Friday.

More than 140,000 Britons have registered their presence in the Middle East with the Foreign Office and 4,000 have returned home so far.

Etihad Airways announced late on Thursday that it would be resuming a “limited commercial flight schedule” on Friday, including flights to Heathrow.

The US and Israel have continued to batter Iran with nationwide strikes, and in turn, Iran has kept up retaliatory strikes on Israel, US bases and across the region.

The Prime Minister insisted that the special relationship is “in operation right now” and said on Thursday that an additional four British Typhoon fighter jets are being deployed to Qatar to strengthen “defensive operations” in the region.

Sir Keir Starmer sought to highlight UK-US intelligence-sharing on a “24/7 basis” amid the spiralling war.

It came as Mr Trump repeated his assertion that Britain’s response has been “very disappointing” and that it should be allowing America to use its bases “without question or hesitation”.

Sir Keir has tried to limit British involvement in the conflict but decided on Sunday that the joint UK-US Diego Garcia site in the Chagos Islands and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire could be used by the US for “defensive” strikes to protect countries being targeted by Tehran.

However, the decision not to grant permission for the first wave of military action prompted anger from Mr Trump, who said he was “not happy with the UK” and, in a personal attack on the Prime Minister, added: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”

The two leaders last spoke during a call on Saturday evening, Sir Keir confirmed on Thursday.

In an interview with American news website Axios, Mr Trump said he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader.

He dismissed possible successor Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as a “lightweight”.

The US president is reported to have said “I have to be involved in the appointment”, comparing the situation to his removal of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

The Iranian regime has not announced a new supreme leader.

Defence Secretary John Healey has declined to rule out UK aircraft taking part in strikes on Iran during a trip to Cyprus.

He told Sky News: “As circumstances in any conflict change, you’ve got to be willing to adapt the action you take.”

The Defence Secretary met his counterpart in Cyprus earlier on Thursday to ease tensions about Britain’s response to drone attacks on the island.

Mr Healey told the BBC that HMS Dragon, a type 45 warship, would arrive at the island “within the next couple of weeks”.

Trade union Prospect said a renegotiated Ministry of Defence contract for some staff at Portsmouth Naval Base, where HMS Dragon is being readied, may be contributing to delays to its deployment.

The contract was based on the “fantasy that conflict only occurs between nine and five”, which means union members are volunteering to do overtime to get the warship ready, the union said.

According to reports, the war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, more than 100 in Lebanon, around a dozen in Israel and six US troops.

In other developments on Thursday:

– Iran warned the US would “come to regret” sinking an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday.

– Azerbaijan accused Iran of attacking it with drones — though Tehran denied that.

– Israel issued a mass evacuation warning for all Beirut’s southern suburbs as the fighting escalated with Lebanon’s Iran-allied Hezbollah militants.