LONDON, Mar 2: Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he granted a U.S. request to allow it to use British military bases to strike Iranian missile sites but said the U.K. will not join any offensive action in Iran.

“We all remember the mistakes of Iraq and we have learned those lessons,” Starmer said.He said Iran had struck airports and hotels where British citizens were and had created a dangerous situation for its 200,000 citizens in the region.

Earlier,  Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the U.K. will not join in strikes on Iran but has agreed to let the U.S. use British bases for attacks on Iran’s missiles and their launch sites.

Starmer said Sunday that Iran was striking at British and its allies’ interests, and “the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source.”Britain had previously refused to allow the United States to use U.K. bases to attack Iran.

Starmer said Sunday he was authorizing their use because of the threat from Iran’s attacks on countries across the region, He said “we are not joining these strikes but we will continue with our defensive actions in the region.”

Starmer said Royal Air Force jets have had intercepted Iranian strikes as part of defensive operations in the region.He said an Iranian strike on a military base in Bahrain on Saturday narrowly missed British personnel.