He was asked if Britain could be targeted by Iran after reports at the weekend that Iran had fired two ballistic missiles at the U.S.-U.K. military base Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Starmer also said that any attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz needed careful consideration and a viable plan, and that his number one priority was to protect British interests and de-escalate.
Asked about the Wall Street Journal quoting unnamed US officials as claiming that Iran fired two missiles at the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Aragchi said: “We have intentionally kept the range of our missiles below 2,000 kilometres, so we don’t have that capability. We have built that capability in order to defend ourselves against our enemies.”
He added that Iran does not seek confrontation with the West. “We don’t have any hostility against the United States people or Europeans,” he said, citing the limitation as a strategic choice rather than a technical constraint.
A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Iran was not responsible for and was not behind missile attacks on the Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean.
The denial came after the Wall Street Journal reported Friday that two intermediate-range ballistic missiles had been fired toward the base, with neither striking it.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to Anadolu‘s request for comment.
Unverified claims and information warfare
Reports of missile strikes on Diego Garcia remain disputed, with conflicting accounts from Western officials and Iranian state-linked media.
Some sources claim missiles were launched but failed or were intercepted before impact, while others say there is no confirmation of any successful strike on the base.
Independent verification of the incident remains limited due to the remote location and military sensitivity of the facility.
– In 2017 the UN General Assembly voted by a large majority(94-15) to refer the request for an advisory opinion on Diego Garcia to the International Court if Justice.
– In September 2018, 13 of the 14 judges of the ICJ concluded that the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia were illegally separated from Mauritius.
– In May 2019 the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly(116-6) to endorse the Court’s opinion that the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia, belonged to Mauritius. Apart from the US and the UK only four countries AUSTRALIA, Hungary, Israel and the Maldives voted in favour of the British neo-colonial claim.
– In November 2019, Britain refused to abide by the ICJ opinion and for the US to leave Chagos/Diego Garcia.
– In 2020 the UN published a map showing Chagos/Diego Garcia as part of Mauritius.
Despite all this, the US sits tight on its key military base of Diego Garcia which is thousands of kilometres from its mainland. In contrast, China’s building of islands in the South China Sea is adjacent to its own territory.
British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) is best known for the top secret US naval base on Diego Garcia Island and the forced deportation of the original Afro-Creole inhabitants from the Chagos Archipelago (1967-1973) and subsequent apartheid laws barring them from returning home.
August 12, 2020
The British authorities were true to their word: the indigenous population between 1967 and 1973 was forcibly relocated to Mauritius and the Seychelles, with the US paying $14 million for the effort. The way for the establishment of a military base was cleared but only after pockets of Chagossian resistance were crushed through threats and intimidation.
Diego Garcia is subject to a territorial dispute from its native population, which was expelled by Britain before the island was leased to the US. Despite ongoing lawsuits, neither the US nor Britain has any intention of allowing the natives to return.
Zur Verteidigung ihrer Kolonialherrschaft veröffentlichte die britische Regierung eine Erklärung: „Das Vereinigte Königreich hat keinen Zweifel an unserer Souveränität über das Britische Territorium im Indischen Ozean, das seit 1814 unter ständiger britischer Souveränität steht“.
The UK failed to meet a UN deadline Friday to hand over their last African colony back to its people. The Chagos Islands are far removed from mainland Africa and lay in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Die jüngste Entscheidung des Internationalen Gerichtshofs in Den Haag, dass die Chagos-Inseln – mit ihrer riesigen US-Militärbasis in Diego Garcia – illegal vom Vereinigten Königreich (UK) besetzt werden, hat das Potenzial, die strategischen Pläne von einem Dutzend regionaler Hauptstädte zu kippen, reichend von Peking bis Riad.