Iran’s reported attempted strike on the Diego Garcia naval base may have failed, but it nonetheless is making waves due to the fact that nobody knew that Iran had the capability to shoot anything that far. “Nobody, and I mean nobody, even guessed” Iran had missiles with that range, William Alberque, a Europe-based senior fellow at the Pacific Forum, told Bloomberg. “It means they probably used a modified missile—maybe a prototype,” indicating Tehran still had storage or workshops that could make the alterations. Alberque added that Iran could have removed weight from an existing missile or even taken off the warhead to extend its range—or it could also have been a one-off modified design.
Press reports have noted that the attempted strike came early on Friday, March 20, hours before U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that they had given permission for the U.S. to use British bases, including Diego Garcia, “for specific and limited defensive operations.” This apparently was an expansion of an earlier permission to strike Iranian missile bases.
In a statement on March21 which avoided any mention of an attack on Diego Garcia, the U.K. Defense Ministry said: “Iran’s reckless attacks, lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz, are a threat to British interests and British allies.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi spoke with British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, strongly condemning the U.K.’s decision to allow the U.S. to utilize its military bases, reported Tasnim. “These actions will certainly be regarded as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between our two countries.” He urged U.K. officials to immediately cease all cooperation with the U.S. and the Israeli regime, including the provision of platforms for “terrorist” TV channels that promote hostile actions against Iranians.
Meanwhile, Araghchi sharply criticized the U.K. and certain other countries for their refusal to condemn the dangerous and reckless attack on the South Pars gas field, while hypocritically denouncing Iran’s defensive retaliatory strikes on U.S.-linked facilities in the region. He highlighted Iran’s inherent right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.
