Britain

Britain: Stop the US-Israeli Blitzkrieg on Iran

Trump draws Starmer along with his war aims

Starmer on a rare phone call to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, image credit Sky News

International Socialist League (IWL-FI, Britain)

March 29, 2026

During March, Starmer declared that military action against Iran is “not our war”, but then allowed three B-52 nuclear-capable American bombers to use Diego Garcia’s UK base in the Indian Ocean for ‘defensive’ strikes against Iran. As we write, the UK government is working with the USA on a ‘viable’ plan to open the Strait of Hormuz, and HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, is en route, with several minesweepers available.

Before the Labour government’s statement on the use of bases, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a phone call with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, warned that allowing the US to use British military bases would be treated as participation in aggression.
Araghchi, (who published the conversation in the British media) stated that the British Government’s action “is definitely considered as participation in aggression and will be recorded in the history of relations between the two countries. At the same time, we reserve our inherent right to defend the sovereignty and independence of the country.”

British government Ministers join in the double speak, emphasising the need for urgent de-escalation and a swift resolution to the war, while helping Trump to expand the bombing and prepare for a ground invasion. The decision to allow the use of British bases for the latest US airstrikes is about escalating war.

On the same day as the British government gave support for the attacks on Iran, Pentagon officials announced that detailed preparations for deploying US ground forces into Iran had been made. If that happens, the war will last a lot longer than a few weeks and further deepen the regional war as Israel will expand its attacks, and Trump will follow the US war political strategy that has expanded since the invasion of Venezuela and the increasing blockade against Cuba.

The double-speak of Starmer obscures the aims of the US. At the end of March, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich explicitly called for the outright conquest and annexation of southern Lebanon as entire villages are being levelled and depopulated in Lebanon – in order to create a greater Israel.

The US wants to remove the right of Iran to defend itself and demand that Iran give up what the USA, Britain, and Europe have had in common to plunder the world: nuclear capabilities. While demanding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, reduction of Iran’s missile program, and its nuclear development programme.

British history of war and invasion

Many commentators have raised the spectre of a new Iraq. In that war, President Bush declared victory in 2003, but the war lasted nine years until 2011, when the total coalition deaths were more than 4600, and the number of Iraqi war-related deaths numbered 461,000.
The US and British imperialisms suffered defeats in Iraq. British forces were humiliated in Basra and forced to withdraw in July 2009, and paid for protection to the very forces they were meant to defeat. Through all their occupations and control of Iran since WWII, the British and US interests were always the geopolitics of oil. That is now linked with expanding regional war driven by the USA and Israel. A war that will repeat and expand on the barbarity of what happened in Iraq.

Those who controlled the Labour Party never had any plans to put Tony Blair on trial as a war criminal over Iraq, and now the UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, follows Blair’s path this time to an expanding regional war because the Labour government is told what to do by Trump.

After WWII, the USA and Britain created a client state, but in 1951, Mohammad Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran in April due to his massive popularity for his aim to nationalise Iran’s oil industry. He was overthrown in 1953 by the CIA and British intelligence, and a brutal regime of the Shah was imposed. That was overthrown in 1979. But the USA, because of the strategic importance of Iran, never stopped its aggression against Iran. Today, the USA and Israel aim to become masters of the area, for oil and trade, against the interests of Chinese and Russian imperialism.

The UK, like the US, has a significant military presence in the Middle East to defend its imperialist interests, with as many as 23 permanent military bases in Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Iraq, and the UAE.

Stop the war

The opposition to this expanding imperialist war is substantial. A recent UK YouGov poll shows that opposition to supporting military action against Iran in Britain rose to 59% on 10 March, and a significant portion of respondents also oppose the use of Royal Air Force bases in the UK for US strikes against Iran.

There have been many protests across the country and large protests in London against IS-Israel imperialism and for the rights of Iranians to decide their own future. The fight for a free Palestine and for Hands Off Iran are coming together on the streets.

We call on all trade unions and social struggles to join the mass movement and make a deep alliance in the fight for a free Palestine and a free Iran. This war will hit the British economy. Everyone opposed to the war should link the struggle against inflation, austerity, the far right, and attacks on our services with the fight against the widespread bombing of Iran and the genocide in Palestine.

We need to support Palestine and Iran, while recognising that the working class is the major force to stop the wars. We must defend the right of the working class and all the oppressed, including the impressive numbers of Iranian women fighting for their rights.

Labour’s position is linked with the USA war plans, and being associated with Trump creates a wide space to increase the mass movement against the bombing invasion of Iran. Now is the time to mobilise and build a national and international struggle worldwide. Today, this means combining all working-class actions from the workplaces to the communities against this war for Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon.

Mobilise against Starmer’s actions for war!
Stop the Bombing of Iran!
Close all UK military bases in the region!
Free Free Palestine!