The U.K. government published a summary of legal advice on Sunday night which insisted the action “does not signal the U.K. having any wider involvement in the broader ongoing conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran.”
In a joint statement earlier Sunday evening, Germany, France and the United Kingdom had opened the door to “enabling” military action against Iran alongside the U.S. and “allies in the region.”
In a statement, the leaders of the so-called E3, the three largest European economies, said: “We will take steps to defend our interests and those of our allies in the region, potentially through enabling necessary and proportionate defensive action to destroy Iran’s capability to fire missiles and drones at their source.”
The communiqué called on Iran to immediately stop its attacks on Western-allied countries and military bases in the Middle East. British, German and French troops have all been put at risk by Iranian counterattacks against primarily U.S. and Israeli targets.
The E3 statement stopped short, for now, of announcing the countries will join in American and Israeli strikes on Tehran and sites across Iran.
“We are not joining these strikes but will continue with our defensive actions,” Starmer said. “We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. We were not involved in the initial strikes on Iran, and we will not join offensive action now. But Iran is pursuing a scorched-earth strategy, so we are supporting the collective self-defense of our allies and our people in the region.”