U.K. has Iran, Syria plans ‘in the locker,’ forces chief says

Bloomberg: Britain has contingency plans “in the locker” should Iran’s nuclear program or a deteriorating situation in Syria necessitate action from the U.K. military, the chief of the defense staff said.

Bloomberg

By Eddie Buckle

Britain has contingency plans “in the locker” should Iran’s nuclear program or a deteriorating situation in Syria necessitate action from the U.K. military, the chief of the defense staff said.

“We do plan all sorts of contingencies — the vast majority of which are just good exercises,” General David Richards told Sky News television in London today. “We’ve got a lot of plans in the locker, and we talk to other nations who would inevitably be involved in them so that if ever the situation deteriorated to the stage where armed force would have to be used we could do it quickly and efficiently.”

Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers in the House of Commons last week that “no option is off the table” in dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, though “we’re not calling for or advocating military action.” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the same day that Iran won’t withdraw “an iota” from its atomic program and dismissed a United Nations report showing the country continued working on nuclear weapons capability until at least last year.

The Arab League suspended Syria yesterday as President Bashar al-Assad’s government pressed on with a crackdown against protesters. U.K. forces were at the forefront of the NATO-led operation this year in support of Libyans rebelling against Muammar Qaddafi.