Is UK Really Sending RAF Jets to Back Israel Against Iran’s Attack?

G7 leaders are to hold urgent talks after Iran launched an unprecedented attack on Israel that saw RAF jets deployed to shoot down drones from Tehran.

Britain and the US have offered staunch support for Israel, with the Ministry of Defence saying RAF warplanes in Iraq and Syria had been deployed to intercept “any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions”.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said 99 percent of more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles had been shot down outside the country’s borders, with aircraft intercepting more than 10 cruise missiles.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said “the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate” had Iran’s attack on Israel been successful, as he confirmed RAF pilots shot down “a number” of attack drones.

Sunak said he chaired a Cobra meeting with Cabinet ministers on Friday to “agree a plan of action” over Iran’s attack on Israel, as the Prime Minister confirmed additional RAF pilots were sent to the region.

He said the UK already has a military presence in the Middle East as part of its operations against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

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Rishi Sunak is expected to join US President Joe Biden on the call on Sunday amid fears of further escalation in the event of a possible Israeli counter-strike.

Tehran has threatened a “heavier” response if Washington co-operates with any further Israeli military action against it.

Israel said Iran launched 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles early on Sunday in an attack that set off air raid sirens across the country.

The attack was launched in response to a strike widely blamed on Israel on an Iranian consular building in Syria earlier this month which killed two Iranian generals.

It marks the first time a direct military assault has been launched by Tehran on Israel despite enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The development threatens to become a major regional escalation after years of shadow wars fought between the two foes as the war in Gaza inflames decades-old tensions in the Middle East.