Green Party MPs have written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressing “alarm” over what they describe as the UK’s involvement in an “illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.”
In a letter on Friday, the group said the UK was “obliged under international law to have no involvement in illegal military action,” including the use of British bases and UK-made weapons.
They raised concerns about the humanitarian impact of the conflict, claiming that “well over 1,000 civilians have been killed, including a reported 168 children.”
The letter also cited reports that military action in Lebanon is “killing or injuring the equivalent of one classroom of children every day.”
The parliamentarians warned that the conflict could have wider consequences, arguing that “the longer this illegal, unnecessary war continues, the greater the global economic fallout”, adding that the UK is “particularly exposed because it remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.”
The letter posed a series of questions to the government about the use of British military infrastructure.
These included what steps were being taken to ensure US bombers operating from RAF Fairford were used only for “specific, limited defensive purposes”, and whether any assessment had been made of Iranian civilian casualties linked to missions launched from UK bases.
They also asked whether US strike targets were approved or audited by the Defense Ministry, and whether banned cluster munitions were being loaded at British bases.
The MPs called on the government to “withdraw all permission for the US to use UK military bases for attacks on Iran” and to “end all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli government.”
They also urged ministers to impose sanctions on officials responsible for alleged breaches of international law and to “refuse any further complicity in this illegal war.”
Since Israel and the US launched joint attacks on Iran on Feb. 28, so far killing more than 1,200 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hostilities have escalated.
Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure while also disrupting global markets and aviation.
