UK on Iran: ‘Not Our War and We’re Not Going to Get Dragged In’
The United Kingdom will not come to the aid of its allies the United States and Israel in Iran, no matter what pressure there is to join and no matter who asks, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The British Armed Forces will act to defend itself and British citizens in the Middle East but will never be “dragged in” to the war against Iran, Sir Keir Starmer said.
The remarks came in Starmer’s speech launching his Labour party’s local elections campaign for the forthcoming May 7th votes. While geopolitics and foreign war discourse may not seem like traditional fodder for local government elections, which in Britain tend to be fought on neighbourhood issues like refuse collection and road repairs, UK politics has taken on distinctly ethno-religious qualities that have led to claims it is developing a new sectarian politics.
For many voters in the United Kingdom, that the government doesn’t bomb Muslim countries is a primary concern at the ballot box, and several Labour Party MPs are privately concerned they stand to lose their seats to single-issue sectarian parties.
Promising his government wouldn’t engage in the joint American-Israeli attempt to reduce Iran’s capacity to hold the global economy to ransom, Sir Keir said in Wolverhampton on Monday that he wouldn’t change his mind “whatever the pressure and whoever it’s coming from”. (Read more from “Starmer on Iran: ‘Not Our War and We’re Not Going to Get Dragged In’” HERE)
