UK drawing up plans to evacuate nationals from Israel if Iran retaliation triggers war

UK officials are drawing up plans to evacuate British nationals from Israel and across the Middle East if a feared Iranian retaliation triggers a regional war, i has learnt

More than a thousand UK military personnel have already been put on standby to get Britons out of Lebanon amid escalating regional tensions.

But i understands that the Government is also looking at whether it will need to get people out of Israel and other countries in the Middle East, for example using charter planes if commercial flights are grounded.

Many major international airlines have already suspended flights to and from the region as tensions rise.

A Whitehall source told i that officials are “really, really concerned” about the potential for a rapidly growing conflict.

The contingency planning is part of wider tabletop exercises that have been going on in the Foreign Office over the past week as tensions ratchet up in tit-for-tat strikes by Hezbollah and Israel, and as Iran warns of retaliation over the assassination of Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.

A region-wide evacuation could be modelled on the effort to get Britons out of Israel and Gaza after many commercial planes were grounded following the 7 October terror attack by Hamas, with the Government effectively booking charter flights.

Around 60,000 British nationals were believed by the Government to be in Israel and Gaza following the 7 October attack.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have urged Iran to “refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions” while urging Israel and Hamas to immediately resume talks on a ceasefire in Gaza.

They endorsed the calls by the leaders of the US, Egypt and Qatar for a three-phase framework that would see Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza, Hamas returning hostages to their families and the safe and effective distribution of humanitarian aid.

The hope in Whitehall is that Iran feels it can carry out a show of strength like the drone attack on Israel in April that does not lead to wider escalation after civilian deaths were avoided.

But the fear is that Tehran will now feel it must show it can directly hurt Israel.

If it does so, an Israel-Hezbollah all-out war in Lebanon is expected, with Israel potentially targeting Iranian infrastructure in the Middle East.

A Whitehall source said there was “ample opportunity for a miscalculation”.

“Nothing is inevitable but we are really, really concerned” about an “uncontrollable move towards a regional war”, the source said.

As Western allies urge Israel and Hamas to return to ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, British officials are closely watching the moves of outgoing US President Joe Biden, amid suggestions he could become more directly and publicly critical of Israel for scuppering peace talks and preventing the release of hostages now that he is no longer the Democratic presidential nominee and therefore has less to lose.

The US moving a guided missile submarine to the region is meanwhile seen by the UK as part of efforts to demonstrate how concerned the West is about escalation.

As well as contingency planning, Starmer is understood to have been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to pull back from the brink.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy also last week directly urged Iran’s acting Foreign Minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, to refrain from an escalatory attack and has been coordinating with allies as well as presiding over crisis meetings in Whitehall.