Iran-Israel attack: what have Rishi Sunak and David Cameron said - will UK get dragged into 'World War 3'?

Rishi Sunak has said that Iran’s drone attack on Israel was “without precedent ... and a reckless and dangerous escalation”.

Iran launched a number of one-way attack drones at the Jewish state in response to an Israeli strike earlier in the month on the Iranian consulate in Damascus. The Iron Dome defence system is thought to have repelled almost every missile launched at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The UK deployed RAF Typhoon fighter jets to the region, who shot down a number of the attack drones. Sunak paid tribute to the bravery of “our pilots in the face of danger”, and in a statement to the House of Commons urged “de-escalation”.

But is the UK in danger of being sucked into what some people are describing as “World War Three”? Here’s everything you need to know.

What was the UK’s response to Iran’s attack on Israel?

The UK government became aware of the Iranian attack by Friday, and Sunak chaired a Cobra meeting which involved Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Deputy PM Oliver Dowden, as well as military chiefs. Downing Street said that it had not been alerted by Iran, as the Islamic Republic claimed, so it presumably must have found out about the strikes through intelligence.

The RAF deployed planes under Operation Shader, which has been running since 2014 to combat Daesh (also known as the Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria. Some fighter jets were redeployed from Romania, where they are part of the Nato mission.

Sunak’s official spokesman explained: “We already have a significant presence in the region, but as a prudent measure we temporarily moved a number of aircraft from Romania to bolster our existing footprint. Allied air forces continue to patrol Nato airspace to continue it is protected from all threats. We have coordinated with Nato and our allies to ensure there is no gap.”

The government said that the fighter jets shot down drones over Iraqi and Syrian airspace, and were “given further permissions to intercept airborne attacks originating from Iran or their proxies”. Sunak’s spokesman added: “This was a common sense measure to ensure if missiles were flying at or past our aircraft en-route to do immense damage, we could take them out. The UK was acting in the collective self defence of Israel and the regional security.”

The RAF also backfilled for US aircraft, which took out other Iranian drones. No10 would not say how many drones were shot down.

What has the government said about the attack?

On Saturday night, following the attacks, Sunak said: “I condemn in the strongest terms the Iranian regime’s reckless attack against Israel. These strikes risk inflaming tensions and destabilising the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.

“The UK will continue to stand up for Israel’s security and that of all our regional partners, including Jordan and Iraq. Alongside our allies, we are urgently working to stabilise the situation and prevent further escalation. No one wants to see more bloodshed.”

In the House of Commons on Monday (15 April), Sunak said that “the scale of the attack and the fact that it was targeted directly at Israel was without precedent”. This was a “reckless and dangerous escalation”.

Sunak confirmed he would be speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to express our solidarity with Israel in the face of this attack and to discuss how we can prevent further escalation”. “All sides must show restraint,” he added.

While Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, also urged Israel not to escalate the situation. “The best thing to do in the case of Israel is to recognise this has been a failure for Iran,” he told Times Radio.

“And so they should, as President Biden has said to them, as it were, take the win and then move on to focus on how to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and how to get those hostages free.”

He also said: “Israeli people this morning are thinking ‘We’ve suffered this massive attack. Of course, we want our government to respond’. And that’s why I think we have to be sensitive in the way we put this, but to say ‘Look, you have had a win because the Iran attack was such a failure and the smart thing to do as well as the tough thing to do now is actually not to escalate’.”

Cameron described it as a “double defeat” for Tehran, with its attack being not only “an almost total failure, but also the rest of the world can now see what a malign influence they are in the region”.

“Had those weapons not been shot down, there could have been thousands of casualties, including civilian casualties,” he told Sky News, describing Tehran’s actions as “reckless and dangerous”.

Will the UK get sucked into ‘World War Three’?

Fears across the globe following Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, was that they could precipitate a wider conflict across the Middle East. And it looks like that is now happening.

Iran is closely aligned with Russia, China and North Korea, while Israel’s key allies are the US, UK and other Western powers, so any conflict between the two creates a new cold war between Moscow and Washington.

Tobias Ellwood, the former chair of the Defence Select Committee, has said that Britain must accept “we’re now involved” in the Middle East conflict. When asked about this, Sunak’s spokesman said: “We’ve been working throughout the conflict to support Israel’s right to self defence, to also support people living in Gaza receive aid that they desperately need. As you know over the weekend we provided support to prevent the Iranian strikes reaching their targets.”

However he denied that the UK was at war with Iran. “We were working in the collective self defence of Israel and protecting regional security,” the spokesman added. We have said in the strongest terms that Iran’s direct attack against Israel was a reckless and dangerous escalation.”

Any escalation however could find the UK even more intertwined in this conflict which threatens to suck in powers from across the globe.

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.