UK matches America in raising threat level of an Iranian attack

THE UK shares America’s assessment of a “heightened threat” of attacks by Iran, Jeremy Hunt said yesterday, as he tried to bring an end to days of transatlantic division over the issue.

The Government has raised the threat level for British troops and diplomats in Iraq and reviewed security arrangements at UK embassies in Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The US had already pulled many diplomats out of its Baghdad embassy and its consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan, fearing attacks by Iranian-backed Shia militias.

UK diplomats remain at their posts in Iraq but the raised threat level appeared to be a sign that the US and UK positions were converging.

“We share the same assessment of the heightened threat posed by Iran. As always, we work closely with the US,” said Mr Hunt, the Foreign Secretary.

The UK and US militaries were publicly at odds earlier in the week after Maj Gen Chris Ghika, the British deputy head of the coalition against Islamic State (Isil), said there was “no increased threat” from Iran in Iraq or Syria.

The American military contradicted his comments, and UK officials said yesterday that Maj Gen Ghika had been aware of the heightened threat level but did not know if he was able to discuss it publicly and so talked down the question of Iran.

Several Western officials said there was a growing consensus that Iran was looking for ways to retaliate to crippling US sanctions but was also trying to avoid a full-blown war.

Asked yesterday if the US was heading for war with Iran, Donald Trump, the US president, replied: “I hope not.”

Western and Arab states suspect Iran was responsible for acts of sabotage against four oil tankers off the coast of the UAE, officials said, although none has yet publicly accused Iran.

Saudi Arabia also said it held Iran responsible for a drone attack launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen against oil facilities inside the kingdom. Saudi warplanes bombed Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, in response. Six civilians, including four children, were killed in the bombing, the Houthis said.

Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s deputy defence minister, said the Houthis were “a tool that Iran’s regime uses to implement its expansionist agenda in the region”.

All “non-emergency” US diplomats were withdrawn from American diplomatic facilities in Iraq.

Brett Mcgurk, a former diplomat who led the US political effort against Isil, said it was the first time that such a dramatic withdrawal had taken place.

The White House announced two weeks ago that it had intelligence that Iran was planning attacks in the Middle East and has since been increasing US forces in the region and raising overall threat levels.

The alarm was caused by images showing Iran’s Revolutionary Guard loading missiles on small dhow boats, according to The New York Times.