Britain: Talks Under Way on US Using Bases for Iran Attack

Cameron: Britain Opposed to Attack 'at This Moment'

Scrambling to answer yesterday report from The Guardian that Britain had rejected an Obama Administration request to use British military bases in an American attack on Iran, Prime Minister David Cameron’s office issued a statement insisting Britain is opposed to such an attack “at this moment.”

That opposition seems to be wafer thin, however, as the statement also said that planning for such a move in the future was ongoing and that talks are “under way” on giving the US such access to their bases.

The British Attorney General’s office had reportedly advised against giving the US access to the bases because an attack would be a violation of international law, and doing so would mean British culpability in the crime.

This might suggest that the “at this moment” comments are just a temporary out, while Britain’s legal team struggles to come up with some sort of conceivably justification for endorsing the American attack.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.