The United Kingdom has condemned “reckless Iranian threats” after missiles targeted a United States-UK military base on Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean.
However, Iran has denied allegations that it was behind the launch of the two ballistic missiles by US media outlets.
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The US has not officially commented on the missiles being fired at Diego Garcia, 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from Iran.
The incident came as the US and Israel launched war on Iran on February 28, one of the goals of which, they said, was to weaken Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.
Tehran has said its nuclear program is for civilian purposes. The United Nations nuclear watchdog and US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard said that Iran is not on the verge of making a nuclear bomb. Contrary claims were made for starting the current war.
Here’s what we know about the reported missile launch and what it means for the war:
Was Diego Garcia airbase targeted by Iran?
According to US media, the attempt to target the joint military base in Diego Garcia with ballistic missiles reportedly occurred between Thursday night and Friday morning.
The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that one missile failed in flight, while the other missile was hit by a US interceptor fired from a warship.
It is said to have happened just hours before UK ministers were to gather in London to discuss the Iran war. At the meeting, Britain agreed that the US should allow it to use its military bases for collective self-defense, such as striking Iranian missile sites used in attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
British officials gave no details of the attempted attack on Diego Garcia.
Muhannad Seloum, a lecturer at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the reported Iranian attack “changes the calculus” of war for the US.
“These missiles on Diego Garcia mean that Iran has ballistic missiles with a range of over 4,000 km, and this has not been disclosed before. All previous reports had said that Iran had a range of 2,000 km (1,240 mi) and not beyond that,” Seloum said.
“If you reverse the direction of these missiles, they could reach London, which would change the calculus not only for the US and the justification for war, but also for London and the EU, which are reluctant to get involved in the war.”
A senior Iranian official told Al Jazeera that Tehran was not responsible for the alleged missile launch.
In an interview with US broadcaster NBC earlier this month, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran has developed missiles capable of reaching US territory.
“You know, we have the capability to produce missiles, but we have deliberately limited ourselves to less than 2,000 km range because we don’t want anyone in the world to feel threatened by us,” Araghchi said on March 8.
Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, said Iranian denials regarding the attacks depend on their nature and their consequences.
He told Al Jazeera, “I think the denial is separate from the steps that Iran is taking on other fronts. The only instances when Iran has denied attacks have been when attacks have hit civilian infrastructure or some gas plants.”
Iran has denied the attacks which Tabrizi believes would potentially “provoke further actions or retaliation”. “This is also a new case of crossing the red line which has not been crossed before,” he said.
Targeting the Diego Garcia airbase is “particularly sensitive because we know the range of the missiles fired was much greater than the 2,000 km distance Iran previously said it had placed its missiles”.
“This indicates an Iranian capability to reach beyond 2,000 km, and so, this is something that is likely to cause further concern and, therefore, may lead to a reaction, particularly from the UK but also from other countries,” he said.
What has the UK said?
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned the “reckless” attacks by Iran after London insisted it would not be drawn into the wider conflict in the Middle East.
He said, “Our approach to this conflict has been consistent throughout. We have not and will not engage in aggressive action, and we have taken a different approach to this than the United States and Israel.”
Cooper said Royal Air Force jets and other military assets were protecting “our people and personnel in the area”. He said any action to defend the Strait of Hormuz would amount to “collective self-defense.”
Tehran has actually blocked the strategic strait, causing global oil prices to rise.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday that Britain would not use a base in Cyprus for Iran-related operations after discussing the future of the base with Cypriot President Nicos Christodoulides.
How has Israel reacted to this?
Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, claimed that Iran used a “two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 km” to target the US-UK base in Diego Garcia.
In a video statement, Zamir said: “These missiles were not intended to attack Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe. Berlin, Paris and Rome are all in direct danger range.”
Israel, a close US ally, has long said Iran’s missile and nuclear programs pose a threat and has lobbied for US military intervention for decades. But successive US administrations had resisted pressure to launch a military attack on Iran. Instead, Washington imposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since immediately after Iranian students took over the US Embassy in Iran in 1979 and took 66 Americans hostage in the wake of the Iranian Revolution that same year.
In 2015, then-President Barack Obama signed a deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. But this historic agreement was opposed by Israel. Trump, who assumed power after Obama, unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.
In June, the US joined Israel in attacking Iran during Israel’s 12-Day War. The US attacked major nuclear sites and Trump claimed that Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued his war rhetoric against Iran, even as Tehran and Washington began talks on the nuclear issue late last year. Netanyahu had criticized Obama for failing to include Tehran’s ballistic missile program under the 2015 deal. Tehran has refused to bring its missile program to the negotiating table.
As the next round of talks was scheduled, the US and Israel attacked Iran three weeks earlier, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Oman, the mediator in recent talks, said an agreement was “within reach”.
Analysts said Netanyahu convinced Trump to start the war, as legal experts said Violation The United Nations Charter’s prohibition on aggression.
He said that Israel has become emboldened after the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza because it has not been held accountable for its war crimes. Israel’s military has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and destroyed vast parts of Gaza – home to more than two million Palestinians.
Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant for war crimes, but that hasn’t stopped him from repeatedly traveling to the US.
Several senior members of Netanyahu’s cabinet have openly called for a “Greater Israel”, which envisions Israeli territory extending from the Nile River in Iraq to the Euphrates River.
Why could Diego Garcia be a target?
The UK-US military airbase is home to approximately 2,500 US personnel and has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and attacks on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The airbase is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean, south of India, and has been under British control since 1814.
The airbase has been at the center of a dispute between Trump and Starmer over Britain’s plan to hand sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius in the wake of the International Court of Justice ruling.
Trump has attacked European allies for not getting involved in the war on Iran, which has spread across the Middle East. Trump also called Western allies “cowards” after NATO countries refused to join the war, which has led to a global increase in energy costs.
Elijah Magnier, a Brussels-based military and political analyst, said the missile launch on Diego Garcia reflects Iran’s deep reaction to the war started by the US and Israel.
“The battlefield is expanding geographically, and if that happens, controlling the escalation, which is what the Americans want, becomes much more difficult because new elements, new places are becoming vulnerable,” Magnier told Al Jazeera.
“That’s why the Americans have to rethink all strategy because Iran is not trying to win a conventional war – it can’t because the Americans are much more powerful – but it is trying to change the cost of the equation,” he said.
“By threatening distant targets, it is a signal that the risks would be too great to continue the war.”
