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Sir Keir Starmer has hit out at the US President and defended his “deliberate” decision not to use military force on Iran, by putting international law first.
Donald Trump told The Telegraph on Monday that he is “very disappointed” with Starmer for refusing to back Washington’s decision to attack Iran.
Starmer has said that the UK “does not believe in regime change from the skies.”
Starmer told MPs in the House of Commons: “That decision was deliberate. We believe that the best way forward for the region and for the world is a negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to give up any aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon, and ceases its destabilising activity across the region.
“That has been the long-standing position of successive British governments.
“President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.”
Touching on Sir Tony Blair, Starmer added: “The lessons of history have taught us that it is important when we make decisions like this, that we establish there is a lawful basis for what the United Kingdom is doing.
That is one of the lessons from Iraq, and that there is a viable thought through plan with an objective that can be achieved or has a viable prospect of being achieved.
I am not prepared to commit our military service people to action unless I am sure that what they are doing is lawful and has a viable basis.
Starmer who is a former human rights lawyer said: “I am clear in my mind that any UK action must always have a lawful basis.
“It must also always have a viable and thought through plan. And it must be in our national interest.
“I think she [Kemi Badenoch] said they would have joined the initial strikes without regard to whether they had a plan. She was very critical of us not joining sooner. Therefore, it’s impossible to have that position without arguing that we should and we could have joined. I fundamentally disagree.”
“On Saturday, we deployed UK pilots into the sky in the region. And they’ve been working there ever since.”
The Prime Minister insisted: “They deserve to know that their actions are lawful and there is a viable thought-through plan, and I will not countenance committing our military personnel to action which does not have a lawful basis. That is not a fair thing to do to our serving personnel, and no UK prime minister has ever committed our personnel to action unless it’s got a proper lawful basis.”
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