{"id":1667240,"date":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1667240"},"modified":"2026-03-03T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:00:00","slug":"trump-says-hes-disappointed-by-starmer-for-blocking-use-of-diego-garcia-for-iran-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/trump-says-hes-disappointed-by-starmer-for-blocking-use-of-diego-garcia-for-iran-strikes\/1667240\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says He’s ‘Disappointed’ by Starmer For Blocking Use Of Diego Garcia For Iran Strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump Says He’s ‘Disappointed’ by Starmer For Blocking Use Of Diego Garcia For Iran Strikes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times<\/a> (emphasis ours),<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was disappointed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s refusal to use the joint UK\u2013U.S. military base on Diego Garcia island to strike Iran.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A US Air Force weapons loader delivers a 2,000lbs bomb for loading into a B1 bomber at the Diego Garcia base, UK, on 22 Oct. 2001. USAF\/DOD\/AFP via Getty Images<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview with The Telegraph, published on March 2, Trump said that Starmer\u2019s initial refusal to let Washington use the Chagos Islands base was unlike anything that had \u201chappened between our countries before.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starmer confirmed late on March 1 that the UK had initially decided not to take part in U.S. strikes against Iran, but said the security situation had changed as Iranian actions began threatening British personnel and interests in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have British jets in the air as part of coordinated defensive operations which have already successfully intercepted Iranian strikes,\u201d Starmer said. \u201cBut the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source \u2013 in their storage depots or the launchers which used to fire the missiles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer said that he would now allow the United States \u201cto use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump said it \u201ctook far too long\u201d for Starmer to change his mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like he was worried about the legality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The base on Diego Garcia is regarded by the United States as one of its most strategically<\/a> important military hubs. Located roughly 2,300 to 2,400 miles from the southern coast of Iran, it allows long-range bomber and naval operations across the Middle East, East Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

In a Feb. 18 post on Truth Social, Trump warned<\/a> that the facility could become critical if tensions with Iran escalated further. He wrote that if Tehran refused a diplomatic agreement, the United States might need to use Diego Garcia and the airfield at RAF Fairford in England to prevent a potential Iranian attack on the UK or its allies.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic Tensions, Parliamentary Delay<\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s criticism also comes amid continuing debate over the UK\u2019s decision to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, a British overseas territory, to Mauritius.<\/p>\n

Under the terms of the agreement, signed in October 2025, the British\u2013U.S. naval and bomber base on Diego Garcia would remain under UK control for at least 99 years<\/strong>, ensuring continued access for U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

The UK government has said<\/a> the agreement was necessary to safeguard the long-term operation of the base, following a series of international court rulings that weakened the UK\u2019s legal position.<\/p>\n

An image released by the U.S. Navy shows an aerial view of Diego Garcia. U.S. Navy via AP<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

According to Starmer\u2019s remarks<\/a> in January, the issue of the Chagos deal had been raised repeatedly with the White House, and he maintained that the Trump administration had already reviewed and supported the agreement at an agency level.<\/p>\n

Trump has criticized<\/a> the UK\u2019s decision to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, calling it an \u201cact of total weakness\u201d in January.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of a sudden [Mauritius] was claiming ownership. He [Starmer] should have fought it out and owned it or make him take it, if you want to know the truth. But no, we were very disappointed in Keir<\/strong>,\u201d Trump told The Telegraph, describing the Chagos deal as a \u201cvery woke thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, UK officials confirmed that Downing Street was pausing to discuss the matter with the United States before bringing the bill to ratify the Chagos deal back to Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sometimes going to disagree with our friends and allies in public, but we will seek to resolve those issues in private,\u201d British Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer told lawmakers on Feb. 25.<\/p>\n

Referring to the UK\u2019s decision to pause the process, Trump said it \u201cis useful,\u201d adding that \u201cit took far too much time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been much better on the legal front if he just kept the ownership of the land and not given it to people that weren\u2019t the rightful owners,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Security Risks<\/h2>\n

Roughly 300,000 Britons are believed to be in countries targeted by Iran, with 102,000 registered with the Foreign Office for alerts as officials weigh all options, including a potential mass evacuation.<\/p>\n

Trump suggested Starmer should have always approved American use of the base, because Iran was responsible for killing \u201ca lot of people from your country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c[There are] people without arms and legs and faces that have been blown up. Iran is 95 per cent of those. Those horrible events were caused by Iran<\/strong>,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Starmer said in his March 1 statement that Iran is \u201cstriking British interests\u201d and \u201cputting British people at huge risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur partners in the Gulf have asked us to do more to defend them, and it is my duty to protect British lives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Hours after his statement, a Shahed-type unmanned aerial vehicle crashed<\/a> into the UK\u2019s Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus. The drone struck military facilities at the base at 12:03 a.m., causing minor damage but no casualties, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

A dog sits at the main gate of the UK’s RAF Akrotiri air base after it was hit by a drone strike near Limassol, Cyprus, on March 2, 2026. Petros Karadjias\/AP<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times on March 2, a spokesperson for the UK\u2019s Ministry of Defence said that it regularly reviews the security of its overseas bases, including the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus.<\/p>\n

The ministry also said additional capabilities had recently been deployed to the island as part of efforts to maintain regional security and stability in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Those capabilities are focused on defensive operations and include radar systems, counter-drone technology, F-35 fighter jets and ground-based air defence systems designed to detect and defeat airborne threats.<\/p>\n

PA Media contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 03\/03\/2026 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/trump-says-hes-disappointed-starmer-blocking-use-diego-garcia-iran-strikes<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump Says He’s ‘Disappointed’ by Starmer For Blocking Use Of Diego Garcia For Iran Strikes Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1667241,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667252,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667240\/revisions\/1667252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}