US request to UK over Iran would have raised legal questions, ex-adviser says

Peter Ricketts says US likely to have decided it was better not to ask, after minister says no request was made

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The US did not ask to use UK airbases to support its overnight bombing of Iran because that would have required British ministers to take a view on the legality of the attack, according to a former government adviser.

Peter Ricketts, a former UK national security chief, said he believed the US had concluded it was better not to ask to launch B-2 bombers from the RAF base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean than to be told no.