LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) – The Daily Telegraph quoted the U.S. president as saying in an interview that he was “very disappointed” that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would not allow the United States to use Diego Garcia air base to strike against Iran.
Britain initially reportedly refused U.S. permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but Starmer said on Sunday night that he was accepting a request to use the bases in any “defensive” strikes the U.S. wanted to carry out on Iranian targets.
In an interview published on Monday, Trump told British newspapers that Starmer took “too long” to change his mind.
“This has probably never happened between our two countries,” he told The Telegraph, adding: “It sounds like he’s concerned about legality.”
Trump said Starmer should have approved US use of Diego Garcia, a strategic US-British air base in the Indian Ocean, from the outset and said Iran was responsible for killing “a lot of people in your country”.
Britain was not involved in Saturday’s joint US and Israeli air strikes on Iran that killed the country’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has been targeting Gulf states with missiles since attacks began on Saturday, and on Sunday an Iranian-made drone struck Britain’s Royal Air Force Akrotiri base in Cyprus, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was “useful” that the United States would now be able to launch operations from Diego Garcia, as he also criticized a deal struck by Starmer over sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago, where Diego Garcia is located.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by William Schomberg and William James)