Donald Trump decided to withdraw more US military planes from Britain due to his “crushing defeat” in the US midterm elections, according to a UK security expert.
Lord Ricketts said the US president feared an Iranian attack on the aircraft ahead of talks he is due to have with Vladimir Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The Wall Street Journal reported two US refuelling tankers stationed at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk were diverted to Germany on Monday morning, while several other tankers at the base were moved to the same country and other locations later in the day.
According to the paper, the decision was in response to a threat from Iran.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a statement: “We do not routinely comment on the activity of other nations.
“Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements.”
Dan Kitwood via Getty Images
But on Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Ricketts, who was national security adviser to David Cameron when he was PM, said the Republican Party’s humiliation at the hands of the Democrats last week will have played a major part in Trump’s decision.
He also linked the move to Trump’s announcement overnight that further US attacks on Iran are “highly unlikely”.
“If you look at the wider context, the Republicans are reeling from their crushing defeat in the midterm elections,” he said.
“Iran was a big issue there. Donald Trump was talking about further strikes on Iran, he seems to be pivoting away from that now and talking about no need for further strikes on Iran.
“But if there was any kind of successful Iranian strike against an airbase in the UK, American assets, then inevitably it would pitchfork the Americans back into conflict with Iran, which is not what Donald Trump wants to do at the moment.
“So for the wider context, he’s obviously very keen to avoid anything that could point in that direction and therefore they’ve pulled them out and decide later what to do about it.”
Lord Ricketts added: “In the meantime, the Americans want to avoid any kind of victory by Iran, any kind of stunt or successful attack, because they don’t want to find their hand forced back into renewed conflict with Iran.
“Bear in mind as well, Trump is shortly to go off to see Xi Jinping and Putin in China. He’s got as big three-way summit with world leaders. He does not want to go to that looking like he’s been subject to any kind of successful attack on American military assets by Iran.”
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