Netanyahu says Israel tipped off Britain about RAF airbase plot before sanctions hit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed his country alerted the UK about a planned Iranian attack on a British military base.

He made the comments during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

Warning before sanctions

According to Netanyahu, the intelligence tip was delivered shortly before the British government, along with 11 other countries, sanctioned products from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

He criticized the timing, calling the decision absurd given the shared security threat.

“We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack and it’s an Iranian-sponsored attack,” Netanyahu told Fox News. He added, according to Euronews, “and pretty much the next day, they slapped sanctions on us.”

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham noted there were “strong indications” of Iranian involvement near RAF Fairford.

Strained political ties

Relations between Britain and Israel have been strained significantly since Burnham took office in late July. His Labour Party administration adopted a tougher stance following a wave of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described the ongoing settler violence as ethnic cleansing and even apologised and admitted the party was wrong in its previous pro-Israel stance.

The United States military uses the RAF Fairford airbase for operations during the ongoing war with Iran. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime in Tehran has warned that any base used to bomb the country is a legitimate target for retaliation.

Confusion in Gloucestershire

The suspected terror plot began when a resident spotted masked men near vans heading toward the airbase. Police arrested five British men on suspicion of terrorism offences.

Officers later released all five men. Bomb disposal teams searched the vehicles and found no explosives, though they did retrieve a “quantity of petrol.”

Iran forcefully denies any role in the plot. Its embassy in London said it “categorically rejects and strongly condemns” speculation of involvement, while Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on social media that the British government was “barking up the wrong tree.”

This article is made and published by Daniel Wolfram, who may have used AI in the preparation