The UK has made a move of its own and deployed two warships and hundreds of additional soldiers to the Gulf in response to Iran’s threats following the U.
S. airstrike on General Qassem Soleimani.
Ramping up the defenses in the Middle East in order to ‘take all necessary steps to protect our ships and citizens,’ the UK deployed 400 soldiers to protect assets and diplomats as well as HMS Defender and HMS Montrose, a destroyer and a frigate, to protect British oil tankers in the Gulf.
The strategic move follows days after Iranian officials have threatened the West by claiming they have identified 35 targets vital to the U.S. and its allies within their reach.
Responding to this threat was also President Donald Trump who warned Iran that an attack on “any Americans” or American assets will result in the country getting hit “very fast and very hard.”
According to the reports, a minimum of four rockets were launched at the Green Zone in Baghdad, where both the UK and the US embassies are located, on Saturday.
As a senior figure from the UK revealed in an interview with The Times, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s main goal is to keep his country out of the war.
In addition, the UK officials aren’t pleased with the States’ decision not to inform them about the strike in advance like they informed Israel.
“We have a plan A and a plan B and a ‘break the glass’ plan if it all kicks off. Our forces in the region have been told to reorientate towards force protection,” the source told The Times.
As per the current British plans, the troops were ordered to secure the embassy in Baghdad to prevent angry mobs from storming the place and/or attacking Britons.
Meanwhile, the warships were given a green light to ‘take all necessary steps to protect our ships and citizens’ by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
Following the death of General Soleimani, thousands of furious Iranians have vowed revenge against the United States, and potentially its allies, and chanted ‘death to America’ during the funeral of their beloved general.
While the top Iranian officials have promised revenge and threatened to attack the White House, the Iraqi president accused America of a “brazen violation of Iraq’s sovereignty” whereas the parliament passed a bill to expel all foreign military personnel from its country.
The airstrike on Soleimani followed shortly after Iran-backed Iraqi militiamen besieged the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and set their reception on fire.
As Pentagon claimed, the US President ordered the attack on the Iranian general in order “to protect U.S. personnel abroad.”
In addition, Pentagon announced that General Soleimani had to be taken out because he was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
Following the threats of retaliation from Iran’s side, Trump has taken to Twitter to warn that an attack on “any Americans or American assets” would lead to “VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” hits on fundamental Iranian sites.
“Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,” the POTUS tweeted.
“He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years.
“Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!”
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