Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet Iranian President Rohani on Tuesday in New York, at the opportunity of the UN General Assembly. He doesn’t rule out military action if tensions with Iran escalate.

Soldiers of the 42 Commando, Royal Navy, training in a desert environment (Picture source: Royal Navy)

British troops could be deployed to protect Saudi Arabia if tensions continue to escalate, Boris Johnson has warned. The Prime Minister confirmed he will meet with Iranian President Hassan Rohani on Tuesday afternoon at the United Nations General Assembly.

The tension in the Gulf region is on the rise since missiles and drone swarms sent by Huti rebels from Yemen allegedly without Iranian support (their ally) destroyed Saudi oil facilities, temporarily cutting by half the national oil production. The UK Government has now attributed the responsibility of this attack to Iran with “a high degree of probability”, just like Donald Trump already did. GPS and other missile components recovered from the site are being analyzed to determine responsibilities. Johnson said: “On what kind of action we can take, you will have seen that the Americans are proposing to do more to help to defend Saudi Arabia and we will be following that. If we are asked by the Saudis or the Americans to have a role then we would consider in what way we could be useful.“

On their side, the Iranians are pressing “the Westerners” to leave the region to avoid worsening the tensions. Furthermore, Iran has already warned that any kind of U.S. attack would trigger a “general war”. Considering their missile arsenal and their mastering of the drone swarms and boat swarms operations, their warning shouldn’t be ignored.