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08-03-2026
LONDON/ CANBERRA: This week, several countries in Europe announced that they are sending military assistance to the Middle East and the Mediterranean amid the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war, which has seen a strike on a British military base on Cyprus.
On Thursday, Australia also announced it will send “assets” to the region but did not specify what.
The war, which started with Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, on February 28, continued to escalate for a seventh day on Friday as attacks continued in Iran, Israel and other countries in the region.
Which European countries are sending military assistance to the Middle East?
United Kingdom
On Monday, the UK’s Royal Air Force base of Akrotiri in Cyprus suffered a drone attack overnight, the island’s president and the British Ministry of Defence said, after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would allow the US to use its bases to launch “defensive” strikes on Iran.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that it was sending the HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean along with two Wildcat helicopters “to bolster drone defence for our Cypriot partners”.
One of the Royal Navy’s six Type-45 air defence destroyers, the HMS Dragon is fitted with a Sea Viper missile system, which is able to launch eight missiles in under 10 seconds and guide up to 16 missiles simultaneously, the ministry said in a statement.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a Downing Street news conference that the UK would send four more Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar to help with defence.
France
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France was sending an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the widening conflict.
“I have ordered the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean,” he said in a televised speech a day after he warned of the risk of the conflict spilling across Europe’s borders.
Macron said he was also sending military assets to Cyprus, a day after Iranian-made drones hit the Mediterranean island’s British airbase at Akrotiri.
“I have also decided to send additional air defence assets and a French frigate, the Languedoc, which will arrive off the coast of Cyprus this evening,” he said.
Greece
Greece has sent two frigates and four F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus.
It has also allowed the US to use its base in Souda Bay in Crete.
Italy
Rome said it will send “naval assets” to Cyprus in the coming days along with France, the Netherlands and Spain. Italy has also pledged “air-defence, anti-drone and anti-missile systems” to partners in the Gulf.
Portugal
The Portuguese government has given the go-ahead for the US to use its Lajes base in the Azores as part of operations targeting Iran, but with certain conditions.
Spain
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made clear his opposition to the war in a verbal bust-up with Trump.
Why are European countries doing this?
Wary of getting directly involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran, European countries have nevertheless been drawn into the conflict by attacks on Cyprus and Western allies in Gulf countries, which host US troops in military bases. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
