Iran-US war latest: UK not intimidated by ‘sabre-rattling’ as Tehran warns Britain could become target if it backs US

Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned on Saturday a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, Kyiv has had to counter Iranian-designed drones deployed by Moscow. Kyiv has offered its drone interception expertise to countries in the Middle East that have suffered strikes from Iran.

Tehran described the attack on its vessel as an act of aggression and said it would defend its national interests and security, while accusing Kyiv of seeking to expand the war in Ukraine.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to convey its protest over what it described as a “hostile and criminal” attack, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.

The Iranian denunciation coincided with comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv had noted Russia was passing on its satellite observations in the Middle East to Iran to enable it to direct strikes in the region.

Zelensky had earlier said that Ukraine’s forces struck a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iranian-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russia was passing on its satellite observations in the Middle East to Iran to enable it to direct strikes in the region.

“Since the beginning of July, we have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and US military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran,” Zelensky said in comments on X.

“At the same time, there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes – both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted.”

British defence secretary Wes Streeting has said the UK is not intimated by Tehran’s “sabre-rattling” after the IRGC warned the country could become a “definite and legitimate target” if it supports the US.

“We stand ready to respond to any attacks Iran wishes to wage against this country or our allies and we will continue to do that,” he told the BBC.

“I think we shouldn’t put too much stock in the sabre-rattling of Iran, and we certainly shouldn’t be intimidated by what the regime has said this week.”

While Saudi Arabia, a host nation for US forces, has not yet formally requested military assistance from Washington, Donald Trump suggested on Tuesday that any Houthi obstruction of shipping in the Red Sea – a crucial corridor for global trade – could draw the United States into the conflict. “If something like that happens, we’ll take care of it. We’ve done that with the Houthis before,” he told reporters.

With the US-Iran ceasefire in tatters, Donald Trump has issued new threats against Tehran’s nuclear facilities in what would represent a significant escalation in the conflict.

Named Operation Midnight Hammer, the countries launched a series of attacks on several nuclear and military facilities more than one year ago. as part of a long-running ambition to thwart Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme.

A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that Britain would become a “definite and legitimate target” if it supported the US in any war with Tehran, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.

The spokesperson said any country, including Britain and Gulf states, that backed the US in a conflict would be considered a legitimate target, adding that US bombers had recently used British airfields.

The Iran war broadened over the weekend despite a pause in US strikes, as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and Iran accused Ukraine of targeting one of its vessels in the Caspian Sea.

The U.S. military said on Saturday its naval blockade against Iran “remains in full effect” but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes.

There were also no weekend reports of attacks by Iran on neighbours, similar to its daily rejoinders to the US attacks.

Asked about the pause, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said Trump “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way.”

The US military said it boarded a tanker in the Arabian Sea on Saturday as part of its naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to reports.

The US Central Command (Centcom) said US forces have so far redirected 12 commercial vessels attempting to bypass the blockade, disabled two vessels that failed to comply, and boarded two ships for verification.