UK Will Not Strike Iran

Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran

That should also mean that Britain would not allow the US to use British bases, either in the UK or in places like Diego Garcia (or in Iraq for that matter). If Britain does allow America to use it's bases, then that is not only supporting a strike on Iran, it means Britain is activelly participating. I think the Government should clarify that point.

seeing that the UK government is still refusing to allow all the natives of diego garcia to return to the homeland - i doubt they would try and stop the US military from using it as a base of operations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Garcia

perhaps it should but it does not - terms of the lease of Diego Garcia to US are quite unequivical - the UK retains no say on how and what operations are launched from the base not does it have a right to be privy to plans - it is essentially US territory during the life of the lease.

I wonder what our neo-con friends the Eustonasts will have to say about this. Presumably it puts them on the right of Blair, not that that would come as any surprise...

I think Tony means overt support, in the same way that the UK did not offer overt support in Vietnam.

Being played.
We don't have to commit any forces for Iran to be bombed America has an air force, this is parsing lawyer speak (will the UK do all in it's power to avert attacks on Iran? No) that actually means something othet than it appears; simply designed for domestic -blair ain't no bush poodle- voters consumption.
Oh yeah and we already participated in the war gaming for this, so I call Bullshit.

Not sure that Blair can 'save himself', as quarsan puts it, whatever he does. The stench is too overwheming to hold your nose.

HuffPo reports that Blair has cancelled a visit to USA this spring. Blair btw was awarded the Congressional Gold medal for being a staunch and steadfast ally or somesuch pretext in the war against terra 772 days ago. This visit was supposedly planned to celebrate that.

Dick Cheney is right to conclude that covert assistance is not ruled out when US escalates its operations in Iran which have already commenced. Listening posts in US bases in the UK are pivotal but the intelligence is not necessarily shared with the host country.

Overseas bases are deemed to be the territory of the countries operating these bases. The same applies to the UK base in Cyprus where the Cypriot government has no jurisdiction, it is UK property; as is the case with US bases in the UK, the Phillipines, Japan, Turkey, Diego Garcia, etc. These are US properties.

Asia and Russia have taken note and forging regional forums that undercut US machinations. The Shanghai Cooperation Forum (SCO) with China, Russia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have recently denied US observer status. The SCO does not buy into US attempts to cut Iran out of the energy pipeline network from the Caspian to the east. In a similar vein US initially demanded membership of, later requsted observer status, in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) - this is under discussion as US military (ie, territorial) presence in Guam, the Phillipines and Japan are not considered sufficient justification for US presence on this body. US is currently seeking to get in through the backdoor with Karzai in Afghanistan demanding representation on the SAARC. Given SAARC's focus is on international trade and Afghanistan's negligible legitimate (non opium) trade with South, South East and East Asia, it remains to be seen what transpires re this issue.

The point about the last paragraph is that the world is looking for ways to progress a multipolar agenda beyond western hegemonic perspectives.

The irony of Bloggers4Labour's vision of socialism is this: it exists within a western colonial framework and cannot see the world outside that hegemony. Nor does it appreciate the reality that a large part of the world have countries which are astute political players and who do not buy into that gameplan.

I am glad to find that someone else has noted the usage of Diego Garcia and we must start a concerted effort to prevent the UK being utilised in such a manner.

B52's are flying constantly over the SW in formation so be aware that striking distance B52's are here in the UK - The UK Government cannot allow them to be used from this country.

The MoD must not be allowed to be used in refuelling, rearming or in any way to assist any attacks on Iran, if the US want to go ahead, it must not come with ANY help from us.

Also, the base at Diego Garcia is still British owned territory, they must be forbidden to use that as strike bases otherwise we will be complicit in attacking Iran.

Isn't this a democracy...? Well, I think we should be asked, the Yanks wanna use Nukes and that to me is unacceptable.

Also, the US line about twenty to thirty targets is very much a massive understatement, I suspect 4-5000 individual targets would have to be hit to prevent Iran roasting US soldiers in Iraq and Israel in general, they would have to literally take out every single missile system and defence system to make it work and I cannot see how they would not be able to do this without UK connivance.

Keep up the good work chaps, sorry to see someone else suffering the spam, it is the dark side of course, pretending to free speech and trying to make sure that we don't get any...

Down with Blair, up with people's democracy ;)

Diego Garcia or US bases in the UK mainland itself are US territories for the life of these leases. MoD doesn't have much say unless the UK Government abrogates the existing leases.

Fake Sheikh exposer askes if this is a democracy. It is supposed to be but a democracy where protest can be illegal.

B-2 stealth bombers capable of carrying bunker busters are stationed in Fairfield, Gloucestershire. This particular US base is one of four, others are one in the US itself, Diego Garcia and Guam, that are fully equipped to service stealth bombers to avoid radar detection. Recently all access roads to the Fairfield base have been closed to members of the public.

The spin in the US mainstream media to sell the Iran war has been relentless of late. They no longer care about making any 'case' since they are fully aware that they do not convince anyone. The most absurd rationale was from Stephen Forbes on Fox Channel arguing that the longer it takes to sort out Iran, the higher the price of oil is likely to be and that it will come down once action is taken. The link to this video clip is courtesy of Think Progress:
http://images1.americanprogress.org/il80web20037/ThinkProgress/2006/forbes.320.240.mov

Iranians have publicly accused UK of covert operations within its territory. Blair no longer has the political clout even within his cabinet to overtly commit troops. His decision to cancel his US trip this spring is largely to avoid photo ops with Bush, never mind the archived footage when he strutted, as he thought, the world stage .