The Daily Populous Tuesday March 24th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by aljazeera.com and submitted by beta265

Iran’s Esmaeil Baghaei denies the long-range missile attack on the military base, which could change the calculus of the war for US allies.

Iran has denied targeting a joint military base of the United States and the United Kingdom on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia with missiles, dismissing the claim as an “Israeli false flag” attack.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that the accusations reflected a pattern of “disinformation” after NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance could not confirm Israel’s claim that the projectiles used were Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“That even the NATO Secretary General (who is infamously pressing Alliance members to appease the U.S. and support their illegal war on Iran) declines to endorse Israel’s most recent disinformation, speaks volumes: the world has grown thoroughly exhausted with these tired and discredited ‘false flag’ storylines,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Speaking to CBS News on Sunday, Rutte backed US President Donald Trump’s war on Iran, framing it as necessary and urging public support. “I’ve seen the polling, but I really hope the American people will be with him because he’s doing this to make the whole world safe,” he said.

Earlier, US media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, said missiles were launched between Thursday night and Friday morning, but they failed to hit the Diego Garcia base.

But if Iran was confirmed to be behind the attacks, it would mean that it possesses ballistic missiles with a range of 4,000km (2,485 miles) or more – able to reach as far as the UK capital, London.

Earlier this month, in an interview with the US broadcaster NBC, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said, “We intentionally limited ourselves to below 2,000km [1,242 miles] of range because we don’t want to be felt as a threat by anybody else in the world.”

UK Defence Secretary John Healey said on Monday that two Iranian missiles had been launched in the direction of Diego Garcia.

Speaking in Parliament, Healey said that one fell short of its target, and the other was brought down short of its target, condemning that attack and calling on Iran to “de-escalate “.

He added, “Neither got close to Diego Garcia. The UK was not required to take action, and normal operations continue.”

British Housing Secretary Steve Reed said on Sunday that the UK had no indication that Iran intended to – or could, even if it wanted to – reach the country with its missiles.

The UK-US military airbase is home to nearly 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported US military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan as well as strikes on Yemen’s Houthis.

Israel’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, claimed that Iran used “a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000km [2,485 miles]” to target the US-UK base.

Israel, a close US ally, has long said Iran’s missile and nuclear programmes pose a threat and has for decades lobbied the US to intervene militarily. But successive US administrations had resisted the pressure to launch military strikes on Iran. Instead, Washington imposed wide-ranging sanctions on Tehran to deter it from developing nuclear weapons.

As Washington and Tehran were engaged in talks, Israel and the US attacked Iran about three weeks ago, killing the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The attack came despite Oman, the mediator of those talks, saying a deal had been “within reach”.

Constant-Tea3148 on March 24th, 2026 at 15:08 UTC »

I have absolutely zero trust in either party to tell the truth

drinkduffdry on March 24th, 2026 at 14:01 UTC »

The scent of bullshit permeates this entire excursion.

idbedamned on March 24th, 2026 at 13:49 UTC »

Believing Iran or the guy that said the Iranians bombed themselves with a Tomahawk, I’m not sure which one to pick.