Iran has fired ballistic missiles at a joint US-UK military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
The US-Israeli war on Iran is approaching its third week since the initial strikes. Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the US was considering ‘winding down’ military action.
The president added in his remarks that the US military was ‘getting very close’ to meeting its objectives in the war.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday evening that the Diego Garcia joint base was targeted by two intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
Multiple US officials confirmed to the outlet that neither missile hit the base. Two sources said one of the missiles failed in flight, and the other was intercepted by the US.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
Diego Garcia is located on a remote island in British waters and houses US bombers, nuclear submarines and missile destroyers.
The base is around 4,000 kilometers from Iran. The strikes undermine Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s previous comments that Tehran limited ballistic missile range to only 2,000 kilometers.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected the comments last month and claimed that Iran was ‘certainly trying to achieve intercontinental ballistic missiles,’ adding that Tehran’s nuclear capabilities were ‘headed in the pathway to one day being able to develop weapons that can reach the continental US.’
Trump blasted the UK government while speaking to reporters outside the White House on Friday, accusing British leadership of a slow response to allow the US to use their bases.
‘It’s been a very late response from the UK. I’m surprised because the relationship is so good, but this has never happened before,’ he said.
Trump said that the UK initially did not want to allow the US to use its island for the Diego Garcia base.
Araghchi responded to Trump’s remarks on X, urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to join US military efforts.
‘Vast majority of the British People do not want any part in the Israel-U.S. war of choice on Iran,’ he wrote.
‘Ignoring his own People, Mr. Starmer is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran.’
The minister then issued a chilling warning, concluding his statement: ‘Iran will exercise its right to self-defense.’
Starmer had previously only allowed British bases to be used by the US when targeting Iranian missile launchers attacking the UK and its allies, and not for defending traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
The UK prime minister has stood firm that the country would not be dragged into the war in Iran.
‘We will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer told Parliament earlier this week.
‘We will take action to defend ourselves and our allies, and we will not be drawn into the wider war.’
The US and Israel have maintained that the main motivation for military action in Iran is to prevent the development of a nuclear weapon.
The Trump administration has projected confidence since the initial strikes, with the president declaring on Friday that he thinks ‘we’ve won.’
He added that he did not want to negotiate a ceasefire because the US was ‘literally obliterating the other side.’
Trump then accused Iran of ‘clogging up’ the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway on the north coast through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
‘The Hormuz Strait will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it — The United States does not! If asked, we will help these Countries in their Hormuz efforts, but it shouldn’t be necessary once Iran’s threat is eradicated,’ Trump later wrote on Truth Social.
The president called out allies within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as ‘cowards’ for ‘complaining’ about high oil prices while refusing to lend military support to the US.
