London could be within range of an Iranian missile strike, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has suggested.
He stressed the threat posed by the Tehran regime at a White House Cabinet meeting after two missiles were fired last Friday at the joint UK-US military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
The base is around 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Iran.
Although both missiles fell short of their target, the incident raised concerns about the threat faced by the UK itself.
While not mentioning Diego Garcia by name, Mr Hegseth said: "Two days ago they (Iran) shot two failed missiles on a target 4,000km away. For years, they told the world that their missiles could only range two (thousand) kilometres. Surprise. Yet again, Iran lie."
He added: "And to the world, I say London is 4,000km from Iran. Washington DC is 3,300km from Venezuela, another country President Trump did something about, partnered for a long time with Iran.
"So you're telling us that Iran is not a threat to the world or to the US? President Trump knows better."
It comes as US President Donald Trump blasted the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers as “toys” as he continued his criticism of the UK’s response to the Iran war.
President Trump said: “We had the UK say that we’ll send – this is three weeks ago – we’ll send our aircraft carriers, which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way, they’re toys compared to what we have.
“But we’ll send our aircraft carrier when the war is over. I said, oh, that’s wonderful, thank you very much. Don’t bother, we don’t need it. We don’t need it, and we don’t need them."
Armed forces minister Al Carns hit back at the comments, saying the UK’s aircraft carriers had “formidable capabilities”.
Criticising the US war against Iran, he told Times Radio: “When I’ve been to every staff college in the military, in my career chain, they taught me three things. One, you must have a legal mandate before you put people in harm’s way. The second is you must have a plan. And the third, you must think to the end.
“If you don’t have those three, we should not be putting people’s lives in harm’s way. We’ve done it in the past and it’s cost us dearly.”
Earlier, Defence Secretary John Healey repeatedly declined to say whether military chiefs believed Iran could hit London with a missile.
Asked if Iran now had missiles which could reach the city, Mr Healey told Sky News: “We have no assessment of Iranian plans to strike London.
“We have a a defence of Britain that isn’t just about what we have for ourselves in and around Britain, our defence of Britain is part of the layers of defence of Nato nations.”
But pressed whether this meant defence chiefs did not know about any threat or had assessed that there was not one, he added: “What it means is I understand the concerns that the British people will have.
“But we have the resources, the alliances in place to be able to protect Britain.”
However, asked again if it was known if the Tehran regime could strike London, he said: “What I’m saying and trying to reassure people is we have got no assessment that Iran has any plans to attack.
“But we have the resources, we have the alliance in place to be able to defend Britain.”
Former senior military officers though, have questioned whether the UK’s Armed Forces could defend against a missile attack on the homeland by Iran, Russia or other hostile states.
The Institute for the Study of War has published a map showing how Iranian missiles may now have been sufficiently developed to reach the capital.
The leading US military think tank said the attack on Diego Garcia “upends some assumptions about the Iranian missile programme” and the threat to Europe.
Tehran has accused the UK of “participating in aggression” in Donald Trump’s war by allowing US bombers to fly out of RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, and the Diego Garcia base for “defensive” missions against Iran such as striking missile sites.
Israel, which is seeking to drum up support for its war with the US against Tehran, says London, Paris and other European cities are now within the range of Iran’s missiles.
“The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat,” the Israeli Defence Forces said.
“Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin.”
Former Armed Forces Minister Lord Spellar has also warned of the threat that Iran-backed jihadists could fire a missile from North Africa at London which he said was “very vulnerable”.
Defence minister Lord Coaker said: “We need to make progress at pace, as quickly as we can, to defend against potential missile threats but also against drone threats.”
Mr Healey also claimed the “hidden hand” of Vladimir Putin was behind both the Iran and Ukraine wars, hours after ministers gave the go-ahead for Royal Marine Commandos to seize Russian “shadow fleet” ships going through the Channel and other British waters.
He said: “I’m releasing today our latest defence intelligence assessment, which says that Russia was almost certainly providing training, sharing intelligence with Iran ahead of this conflict, including on types of drones, including on electronic warfare.
“Whilst Putin may want us to be distracted by the Middle East, we’re determined that we won’t be.”
