Middle East

Ben Obese-Jecty Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend is right that at every stage we have been urging the protection of civilians. That is immensely important as part of this and is also why we need to work so immensely hard to prevent further escalation. It is one of the issues we have been raising particularly around Lebanon, where I am concerned that we are on the brink of what could be much greater devastating humanitarian consequences. It is also why we have been looking forward to what diplomatic process and settlement process could prevent Iran from posing a threat in future.

[Ben Obese-Jecty (Huntingdon) (Con)]

The morning after the drone attack on RAF Akrotiri, the Foreign Secretary said in the media round that the drone had struck the runway at RAF Akrotiri. I clarified that with the Ministry of Defence, which went on to confirm that it in fact struck the hangar. The hangar in question was widely reported in the media as containing the U-2 spy planes of detachment one of the US air force’s 9th operations group, which is tasked with flying intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions over the middle east. To that extent, given that the Foreign Secretary stated that Cyprus is not being used in those US operations, could she clarify unequivocally whether Operation Olive Harvest is being used by the US to fly reconnaissance over the middle east in defensive support of these US operations? If she is sure that it is not, could she confirm what conversations she has had with the US that made her come to that assessment?

[Yvette Cooper]

The hon. Member is right about the strike around the hangar. The request from the US to provide basing support for the operations against the ballistic missiles was a request for RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia. The agreement that we have reached to provide that basing support is confined to RAF Fairford and Diego Garcia.