UK could send troops to defend the Saudis

BORIS Johnson yesterday said Britain could send military forces to help defend Saudi Arabia as he blamed Iran for the recent attacks on the Gulf kingdom.

The PM said Western powers wanted to de-escalate the crisis, suggesting a military retaliation is not on the cards.

Britain could instead consider a request to help shore up Saudi defences. Speaking to reporters en route to the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr Johnson said: ‘The UK is attributing responsibility, with a very high degree of probability, to Iran. We think it very likely that Iran was responsible using both drones and cruise missiles.’

Asked if a response could involve deploying forces, he said: ‘The Americans are proposing to do more to help to defend Saudi Arabia and we will be following that very closely and clearly if we are asked.’

The UK is only the second country after the US to directly blame Tehran for the September 14 missile strike on Saudi oil facilities, which sent oil prices soaring.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen initially claimed responsibility. But a UK Government official said the intelligence services conclude the ‘scale, sophistication and range’ of the attack ruled out the rebels. Tehran last night dismissed Mr Johnson’s ‘futile attempts’ to point the finger at Iran.

The PM also pledged to raise the case of jailed British-Iranian Nazanin ZhagariRatcliffe, pictured, and other Westerners when he meets Iran’s President Rouhani in the margins of the UN General Assembly this week.

He described the plight of the mother of one, who has been held since 2016 on spying charges, as ‘very sad’.

Mr Johnson also insisted Donald Trump was the ‘one guy’ who can negotiate a new nuclear pact with Iran. It came as the country said it had set free the captured British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized by Revolutionary Guards in the Persian Gulf in July.