Iran threatens to attack UK bases used by US forces - risking wider war | BBC News

The escalating conflict between the US and Iran, despite a truce signed just last month, now seems to have dragged in the UK.Tehran has threatened to attack a British airbase after claiming for the first time since the renewal of hostilities that a US bomber attacked Iran after flying from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.In response, the Ministry of Defence tonight said the UK stands ready to defend itself.All this as another front in their war appears to have opened up between the U .S.and Iran, this time in the Red Sea, where Iranian -backed Houthi rebels say they've attacked two oil tankers.

That news pushed energy prices up sharply, with the cost of a barrel of oil hitting $100 for the first time since May.More on that in a moment, but first, Jeremy Bowen has our top story tonight.

The UK's attempt to keep a distance from America's war with Iran while still letting US B -1 bombers use British bases, this is RAF Fairford, is wearing thin, certainly as far as the Tehran regime is concerned.The B -1s, Britain says, can only fly defensive missions.That's an inherently ambiguous statement, as in warfare, the line between defence and offence is hard to define, and it's dismissed by Iran, which now says bases like Fairford are legitimate targets for attack.It is not clear what they might do, but the threat will be taken very seriously.In the Gulf, 12 days of renewed US strikes, Iranian retaliation and mutual threats add up to a full -scale return to war.Military and economic pressure on Iran is intense, but there's no sign that another bombing campaign, on top of 39 days of strikes before the ceasefire in April, will force the regime in Tehran to bend or break.

Donald Trump's repeated emphasis on tactical success, all that the U .S.has destroyed, cannot hide the evidence that his attempt to get a quick victory over Iran has turned into a strategic defeat for the United States.

I had a newspaper say, they're in stronger position today than they were four months ago.No, that's not the truth.That's not right.I can't believe they're even allowed to say it.New York Times said they're in stronger position today.They have no military.

They have no Navy.They had 159 ships.Every one's at the bottom of the sea.

Until now, all eyes have been on the Strait of Hormuz.America's justification for this current campaign was to stop Iranian attacks on ships there, but now there's a new front opening up.It's the Bab al -Mandab Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea.The Houthis in Yemen, Iran's allies, are attacking tankers carrying Saudi oil.Last night, two tankers were hit, including this one, the Saudi -registered Encelia, targeted when travelling south out of the strait.If Bab al -Mandab, as well as the Strait of Hormuz, is blocked, the Saudis will have no direct routes to their huge markets in Asia, and we will all feel the economic consequences of higher oil prices.

The Houthis look to be ending a four -year truce with Saudi Arabia.And since the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Donald Trump at the White House last November, their alliance has been damaged by the war with Iran and now by the president's abrupt decision to link their new deal on nuclear technology with a demand for Saudi Arabia to recognize Israel.In Tehran, the Iranians are stepping up their anti -US propaganda, threatening to kill Donald Trump on the corner of the street.the president in a coffin.Neither the Iranians nor the Americans have ruled out a return to diplomacy, but that would require both sides to de -escalate and soon after accept concessions that neither for now is prepared to offer.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC News.And Jeremy is here along with Faisal Islam, our economics editor.To you, Jeremy, first.I mean, there is supposed to be a truce in place, yet we've seen this escalation night after night after night.I mean, the truce is dead, isn't it?At the moment, yeah, sure.

It might come back to life.This is the Middle East.You can't predict some things.The mediators are working at it, the Pakistanis, the Qataris.Ed Miliband, Britain's new foreign secretary, is actually on his way to Doha in Qatar to talk to allies there.So you can't rule anything out.

At the beginning of this escalation 12 days ago, there was a lot of talk that maybe both sides were trying to bolster their negotiating position with a show of force.But the problem with these escalations is that things can go out of control.And at the moment, if you look at everything that's going on around the place, straight -up or moves, Bab al -Mandab, threats even to RF Fairford.It feels like it's spinning rather out of control.And that's also exacerbated by Donald Trump at first making a deal with Saudi Arabia and then putting in this condition of recognising Israel, something that the Saudis have always linked to a Palestinian state, which is not happening at the moment.So there's this sense, I think, that there is no one really in charge of the pace of events in the crisis.

And that is a dangerous thing.Now, big question.Does it escalate further?Donald Trump has been threatening that it could escalate further in a big way.Or do they find, do the mediators, do others find a way ofslowing it down, getting together, talking again, but the difficulty is what do they talk about?

Because they had this memorandum of understanding with various rather ambiguously drawn clauses in it.And that didn't work out.So they need some new ideas fast.What we're going to see is more prolonged exchanges.And that is dangerous for all of us.

Yeah.And Faisal, this attack on tankers in the Red Sea, I mean, are we returning now to the bad old days of April, May, when oil prices, the cost of a barrel was over $100 for an extended period?

Well, we're back there today.In terms of the Brent crude price, it's back at $100.And it had fallen.quite sharply.We've also seen a similar pattern in gas.Let's take a look at what's happened to the oil price over the course of this year.

And you'll see the sharp rise.But then it fell as the de -escalation occurred in June.And now we essentially had re -escalation.In fact, it's escalated beyond where we saw in May in terms of the spread, as Jeremy has been pointing to.I mentioned the gas price.You get a similar pattern there.

Actually, the price of gas in international markets is now pretty close to the highs we've seen during the Second World War.And that is critical because across Europe, we're just at the point where they're going to start to fill up their storage for winter.So this is a really important moment, and it's why some are worried that this will then flow through.We're already seeing an impact on petrol and diesel prices to some degree.And it's also flown through, sort of, we see it in government borrowing costs as well, including for the UK.And it means that these trade -offs are already quite tricky for this cost -of -living government under the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.