Israel Warns of Global Missile Threat from Iran
Israel has issued a warning that major cities such as London, Paris, and Berlin could be at risk from Iranian missiles following a recent strike on a British military base in the Chagos Islands. The incident involved two ballistic missiles being fired towards Diego Garcia, a strategic base in the Indian Ocean operated jointly by the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to reports, one missile failed during its flight while the other was intercepted by a US warship, marking what is believed to be the first-ever attack on this military base. Although the exact timing of the event remains unclear, the government confirmed it occurred before Keir Starmer approved Donald Trump’s request for UK-based bombers to target the Strait of Hormuz.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has accused the Prime Minister of a ‘cover-up’ regarding the details of the attack and questioned why the public was not informed sooner. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed that the strike on Diego Garcia marked the first time Iran had launched a long-range missile capable of reaching approximately 4,000km since the start of the conflict.
‘The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin,’ the IDF stated. Hours after the attack, Iran declared it had achieved ‘missile dominance…over the skies of the occupied territories’ and warned that its ‘new tactics and launch systems’ would leave the US and Israel ‘astonished’.
Diego Garcia is located about 3,800km from Iran, which contradicts previous claims that Iranian missiles could only reach 2,000km. Analysts believe Iran may have used intermediate range ballistic missiles or even a space launch vehicle to extend the range of its weapons.
The strike on Diego Garcia occurred just seven days after Israeli forces targeted Iran’s main space research centre in Tehran, amid concerns it was being used to develop satellite attack capabilities in space. Experts warn that if Iran enhances its military capabilities, the missile threat could extend beyond the Middle East and reach most Western European capital cities.
Paris, for example, is 4,198km from Tehran, while London lies on the ‘edge of vulnerability’ at around 4,435km. This analysis comes as General Sir Richard Barrons, who led the UK’s Joint Forces Command between 2013 and 2016, stated that Iran’s power may have been ‘serially underestimated’.
He responded to questions about whether Trump was right to claim the UK had done ‘too little and too late’, or if opponents of the war were correct in saying the UK had been drawn into an American conflict. He said, ‘Both could be true. War generally does not follow a script and the enemy always gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy’s vote, Iran, has been serially underestimated.’
Foreign affairs analyst Nawaf Al-Thani noted that the assumption about Iran’s missile capability ‘has just collapsed’. He added, ‘For years, the accepted ceiling was around 2,000 kilometres. A ballistic missile reaching Diego Garcia suggests something in the neighbourhood of 4,000 kilometres, which pushes it out of the medium-range category and into the intermediate-range class (IRBM). That is a strategic leap.’
