UK plays down fears of Iran’s attack capabilities

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Labour has dismissed concerns that Iran has missiles capable of striking Britain, after Tehran fired two missiles at Diego Garcia on Friday. The island, which hosts a joint UK-US military base, is nearly as far from Iran as mainland Britain. This prompted an Israeli warning that the Iranian regime was capable of hitting London. Publicly available information suggests this isn’t the case. In 2017, Ali Khamenei publicly imposed a 2,000km cap on the range of Iranian missiles to avoid antagonising Europe, although the regime is believed to possess missiles capable of striking up to 3,000km. This could allow them to hit most of Europe but not the UK. A US intelligence report said Iran had no long-range intercontinental missiles but could produce 60 by 2035 “should Tehran decide to pursue the capability”. Evidence suggests it hasn’t.