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– British opposition leader Nigel Farage is taking aim at his country’s prime minister for not supporting the U.S. in its military strikes against Iran.

‘I think not to support America when it asks for support is a pretty extraordinary thing to have done.,’ Farage, the leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said in an exclusive interview Saturday with Fox News Digital.

President Donald Trump has blasted Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer for initially blocking the U.S. from using British military bases, specifically Diego Garcia — a strategic base located on an Indian Ocean island — for strikes against Iran during Operation Epic Fury. Starmer later permitted the use of the bases for ‘defensive strikes’ after Trump’s complaints. 

Starmer hasn’t spoken to Trump since they connected on a call last weekend, after the U.S. and Israel launched their strikes on Iran. The British prime minister has made clear his country would not be joining the U.S. in attacking Iran, emphasizing he didn’t believe in ‘regime change from the skies.’

Trump, taking a jab at Starmer, said earlier this week, ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

Farage criticized Starmer for not changing his stance, ‘even now, despite the fact that we’ve got an RAF base in Cyprus that’s been under attack, we’ve got allies of ours in the Gulf that are under attack.’

‘I think there’s been less than wholehearted support has come for the Americans in this endeavor. And I think the British Prime Minister on the world stage, he’s upset the Americans,’ Farage said. ‘He’s upset the Cypriots. He’s upset the Gulf states. And he’s pretty friendless at the moment.’

Farage, who seven years ago founded the populist Brexit Party, which later transformed into the Reform UK party, was interviewed ahead of an appearance at an annual economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent political group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

Starmer has been feeling Trump’s wrath not only for their differences over the attack on Iran, but also over the British deal to hand sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where Diego Garcia is located, to Mauritius. Starmer has argued his lease-back deal is the only way to secure the British-U.S. military base on Diego Garcia.

Farage, who has been vocal in his opposition to the deal, told Fox News Digital that ‘outside of America itself,’ Diego Garcia ‘is the most important base you’ve got in the whole world. Now it’s there as part of British sovereignty. We have a treaty between us that goes back to 1966 and Keir Starmer is on the verge of giving away the sovereignty of the Chagos islands and Diego Garcia to Mauritius.’

‘If Trump initially had problems with the Brits over using the base, just think what it will be like with the heavily Chinese-influenced Mauritians. They already have said they believe that America should not have struck Iran, that it was against international law, then are calling for a ceasefire,’ Farage said.

Farage, who said his opposition to the deal was a key factor in his weekend trip to the U.S., said, ‘I would just urge the president, this administration, stay firm. Tell the British government you will not accept giving away of sovereignty to Mauritius, and let’s ensure a future for Diego Garcia. I think it’s really important.’

Farage, who’s hoping to become Britain’s next prime minister, argued that Starmer’s relationship with Trump is beyond repair.

‘I think the personal relationship between Keir Starmer and Donald Trump has gone. I mean, Trump can be forgiving, but, you know, that would take a long time. So I think that breakdown is there,’ he said.

But as for the longstanding bonds between the two countries, known as the ‘special relationship,’ Farage was more optimistic.

‘The special relationship went through bad times in the past. We had a massive fallout 70 years ago over Suez, but we got back together again. I’m convinced it can, and it will, be mended,’ he predicted.

During the Shield of the Americas summit in Florida on Saturday, outgoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem thanked President Donald Trump for appointing her to a newly created role after she was ousted from overseeing the agency.

Noem, who is moving to the newly created position of special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, showed no ill feelings toward the president and said she was proud of her work at DHS, arguing the department had secured the border and eliminated public safety threats.

‘I do want to thank the president for creating this and for giving me the honor and the opportunity to serve as a special envoy to this region, to the Western Hemisphere,’ Noem said during the summit at Trump National Doral outside Miami. 

‘This Shield of the Americas will be a powerful example to the rest of the world about what’s possible.’

Trump announced this week that Noem would shift into the new role after cutting short her tenure at DHS. 

Noem was removed as the nation’s immigration chief after a turbulent stretch marked by internal clashes and two contentious congressional hearings where even some Republicans pressed her over leadership missteps, including the ad campaign, which she claimed the president had signed off on.

Noem framed the initiative as an effort to expand border security cooperation beyond the United States.

‘The way that we cooperate on our shared ideals of freedom and of democracy and safety and security will be a shining light to all of those who wish to be more like all of us,’ she said.

Noem, who previously served in Congress and as South Dakota governor before leading DHS, defended her record overseeing immigration enforcement during the past year.

‘In the last year, as secretary of Homeland Security, we have focused on securing our border,’ she said. ‘We have transformed our country from one that was being invaded by enemies, millions of them that were coming in unvetted, that we didn’t know who was there and who wished to harm us.’

‘We’ve secured that border,’ she continued. ‘We’ve focused on removing public safety threats, and over 3 million people have been deported or removed from our country in the last year.’

Noem argued that stronger border enforcement has allowed the administration to pivot toward economic and diplomatic engagement with neighboring nations.

‘Secure borders has changed everything for our country,’ she said. ‘Now that America is secure and our borders are secure, we want to focus on our neighbors and to help our neighbors with their borders and challenges that they have so that they may have the security that we enjoy.’

Trump announced on Truth Social that Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., will replace her effective March 31, while Noem shifts to the newly created envoy role.

Members of Trump’s Cabinet, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer attended Saturday’s summit. 

Leaders from other nations included Argentina’s Javier Milei, El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele Ortez, Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz Pereira, Costa Rica’s Rodrigo Chaves Robles, Panama’s José Raúl Mulino Quintero, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Chile’s Jose Antonio Kast, the Dominican Republic’s Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, Ecuador’s Daniel Roy Gilchrist Noboa Azín, Guyana’s Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Honduras’ Nasry ‘Tito’ Asfura and Paraguay’s Santiago Peña.

Notably missing were the leaders of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, and Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

Fox News Digital’s Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.

. – One week into the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, two Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee say the military operation has ‘degraded’ Tehran’s ability to strike back.

But in exclusive interviews with Fox News Digital, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Ted Budd of North Carolina emphasized that the fighting will not lead to U.S. involvement in ‘forever wars’ in the volatile Middle East.

‘Our military is doing a great job,’ Scott said. And pointing to Iran, he said, ‘They want to destroy America. We’ve got to stop them.’

Budd highlighted that ‘we have significantly degraded Iran’s ability to shoot back at us… their capacities are degraded. We’ve had great success.’

Budd and Scott were interviewed as they attended an economic conference in Florida hosted by the Club for Growth, an influential and politically potent conservative group that pushes for fiscal responsibility.

President Donald Trump, who called for Iran’s ‘unconditional surrender,’ said on Saturday that Tehran will be ‘hit very hard’ and warned the U.S. is considering ‘areas and groups’ not previously considered to target.

Over the past week, ‘Operation Epic Fury’ has widened in scope as Iran has retaliated against a growing number of nations in the region. This week, the Republican-controlled House and Senate, in separate votes nearly entirely along party lines, rejected moves by Democrats to restrict the president’s ability to steer the fighting.

The president said on Thursday, in an interview with Axios, that he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next leader. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes against Iran a week ago.

And there are concerns among many on the right that the strikes against Iran could lead to prolonged American military involvement in the region, which Trump has repeatedly campaigned against during his three runs for the presidency.

‘Trump doesn’t want to be in forever wars. Every time I’ve talked to him, he doesn’t want that,’ Scott said. ‘But I think what we do want to make sure we don’t have another Ayatollah that wants to… chant Death to America and death to our allies and try to destroy us.’

Budd added that ‘we’re not up for forever wars. We want to get in, get this thing done, get out and have peace for our country and the rest of the region.’

The latest Fox News national poll indicated that American voters are divided on the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even as a majority sees the country as a security risk. 

Sixty-one percent of those questioned viewed Iran as a danger to the U.S., according to the survey conducted Feb. 28-March 2. But that concern did not translate into majority support for the current U.S. military action, as 50% approved and 50% disapproved.

Support for the attacks was lower in national polling from other news organizations.

But the Fox News poll and the other surveys indicated widespread support among Republicans.

‘Trump’s doing the right thing. He’s saving American lives by making sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon or ballistic missile. So he’s doing the right thing,’ Scott emphasized.

Budd added, ‘I’m very excited [about] what President Trump’s done… The goal is American prosperity and American safety, and that’s what President Trump wants.’

Oil prices have shot up since the start of the fighting, instantly resulting in higher costs for gasoline across America. That’s a major concern for Republicans as they aim to keep control of the House and Senate majorities in this year’s midterm elections.

‘Hopefully it’s all going to be short term. Hopefully… the demolition of the Iranian military will happen quickly and actually will get lower oil prices,’ Scott said.

Budd acknowledged that ‘we are going to have some short-term disruptions.’

But the senator was optimistic that ‘very soon we’ll have gas prices much cheaper than ever before. We were already on that pathway. President Trump is all about stability. He’s all about the price of oil.’

President Donald Trump on Saturday slammed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he was joining the war in Iran after the U.S. has ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Trump’s statement came after the U.K. Ministry of Defense said that one of the country’s two aircraft carriers had been placed on advanced readiness in Portsmouth, England, for a possible mobilization to the Middle East, according to the BBC.

A British destroyer, HMS Dragon, is also in Portsmouth, waiting to leave for Cyprus after delays.

Starmer said that while the U.K. wasn’t involved in the strikes, they are ‘operating defensively in the region.’

In an address to the British people on Sunday, Starmer condemned ‘indiscriminate’ attacks by Iran following the U.S. strikes, adding, ‘the only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source.’

He added that Britain has agreed to the United States’ request to use British bases for that ‘limited’ purpose.

After the strikes, Trump told the Telegraph in the U.K. that he was ‘very disappointed’ in Starmer, claiming it ‘took far too long’ for the prime minister to allow the U.S. to use British bases in the region. 

British fighter jets are also flying over Jordan, Cyprus and Qatar to strengthen defense in the region, and a Merlin helicopter is on the way for additional airborne surveillance, according to the Ministry of Defense.

‘While the region has been plunged into chaos, my focus is providing calm, levelheaded leadership in the national interest,’ Starmer said this week. ‘That means deploying our military and diplomatic strength to protect our people. And it means having the strength to stand firm by our values and our principles, no matter the pressure to do otherwise. The longstanding British position is that the best way forward for the regime and world is a negotiated settlement with Iran where they give up their nuclear ambitions.’

He said that’s why he made the decision that the U.K. would not join the initial coordinated strikes launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

In Parliament this week, Starmer added, ‘We all remember the mistakes of Iraq, and we have learned those lessons. Any U.K. ‌actions must ⁠always have a lawful basis, and a viable, thought-through plan,’ Starmer said. ‘This government does not believe in regime change from the skies.’

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss reposted Trump’s Saturday Truth Social comments on X, writing, ‘Justified and damning.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to Starmer’s office for comment.

King Charles III will reflect on ‘the increasing pressures of conflict’ across the world in a ‘time of great challenge’ during a speech planned for Monday, according to multiple reports. 

‘We join together on this Commonwealth Day at a time of great challenge and great possibility,’ a preview of the 77-year-old’s Commonwealth Day speech says.

The king’s speech continued: ‘Across our world, communities and nations face the increasing pressures of conflict, climate change and rapid transformation. Yet it is often in such testing moments that the enduring spirit of the Commonwealth is most clearly revealed.’

The speech will come a little more than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched coordinated strikes against Iran, which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom didn’t take part in for the sake of their national interest.

‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with,’ President Donald Trump said earlier this week in a criticism of Starmer amid a perceived lack of support for the U.S. and Israel’s joint military operation against Iran.

‘By the way, I’m not happy with the U.K. either,’ the president said, referring to Starmer blocking the United States’ use of U.K. bases to launch attacks on Iran.

Britain has since allowed the U.S. to use its bases in the region for defensive purposes against Iran’s retaliatory strikes. It has also mobilized fighter jets and plans to send a destroyer and possibly an aircraft carrier. 

The president referenced the Chagos Islands Tuesday, which are British territories in the Indian Ocean, saying it has taken ‘three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.’

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised,’ he said.

Later, the president said the United Kingdom has been ‘very, very uncooperative with that stupid island.’ 

‘It’s a shame,’ Trump said. ‘That country, the U.K., and I love that country, I love it.’

‘This is not the age of Churchill,’ he added.

Trump slammed Starmer again on Saturday, accusing the prime minister of joining the war after the U.S. had ‘already won.’

‘The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!’

Starmer has defended his decision to stay out of the conflict, saying the U.K. was ‘not involved in the ​initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now.’

‘But in the face of Iran’s barrage of missiles and ⁠drones, we will protect our people in the region,’ Starmer said in an address Monday to Parliament. ‘President Trump has expressed his disagreement with our decision not to get involved in the ​initial strikes, but it is my duty to judge what is in Britain’s national interest. That is what I’ve done, and I stand by it.’

The king and other senior royals will gather at Westminster Abbey on Monday for the annual Commonwealth Day celebration, which recognizes the 56 countries voluntarily connected to the U.K., many of which were once part of the British Empire.

The preview of the speech continues: ‘Working together, we can ensure that the Commonwealth continues to stand as a force for good — grounded in community, committed to the kind of restorative sustainability that has a return on investment, enriched by culture, steadfast in its care for our planet, and united in friendship and in the service of its people.’

Charles’ speech at the abbey will also be the largest gathering of the royal family since former Prince Andrew was arrested on Feb. 19.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

When War Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked recently whether U.S. forces would ever move to secure enriched uranium reportedly stored at Iran’s Isfahan nuclear complex, he declined to say, citing operational security.

The exchange highlighted a question the U.S. and Israel’s air campaign alone cannot answer: even if U.S. strikes degrade Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, who would physically secure the enriched uranium, and how?

Iran is believed to possess a significant stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, near weapons-grade. That material could theoretically be used in multiple nuclear devices if further refined. 

Moving from 60% to weapons-grade 90% enrichment requires additional processing, and weaponization would involve further technical steps. But analysts say the more immediate issue is physical control of the material itself.

‘If the U.S. wants to secure Iran’s nuclear materials, it’s going to require a massive ground operation,’ Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, told Fox News Digital.

Davenport said the highly enriched uranium believed to be stored at Isfahan appears to be deeply buried and contained in relatively mobile canisters. Securing it would likely require locating the full stockpile, accessing underground facilities and safely extracting or downblending the material.

‘It’s not even clear the United States knows where all of the uranium is,’ she said, noting that the mobility of storage containers raises the possibility that some material could be moved or dispersed.

The administration repeatedly has said preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remains a central objective of Operation Epic Fury.

‘Ultimately, this issue of Iran’s nuclear pursuit and their unwillingness through negotiations to stop it is something President Trump has said for a long time needs to be dealt with,’ Hegseth said.

Senior administration officials have argued that Iran sought to build up its ballistic missile arsenal in part to create a deterrent shield — enabling Iran to continue advancing its nuclear program while discouraging outside intervention.

So far, however, the bulk of U.S. strikes have focused on degrading missile launchers, air defenses and other conventional military targets.

Experts note that dismantling missile systems may reduce Iran’s ability to shield a potential nuclear breakout. But physically controlling enriched uranium itself presents a separate and more complex challenge.

Airstrikes versus physical control

Defense officials have acknowledged that degrading nuclear infrastructure from the air is different from safely managing or securing nuclear material. 

Airstrikes can destroy centrifuges, power systems and support buildings. But enriched uranium stored underground may remain intact unless it is physically secured, removed or verifiably downblended.

Striking or extracting nuclear material also carries safety risks that military planners must weigh. 

If storage casks containing uranium hexafluoride gas were compromised, the material could pose chemical toxicity risks to personnel entering the site without proper protective equipment. Analysts say a conventional strike is unlikely to trigger a nuclear detonation, but dispersal of material could create localized hazards and complicate recovery efforts.

Chuck DeVore, a former Reagan-era defense official who worked on nuclear issues, argued that directly targeting the stockpile may not be a priority under current battlefield conditions.

‘You don’t want to release the material into the surrounding areas and cause radioactive contamination,’ DeVore said, adding that deeply buried facilities are difficult to reach from the air. 

DeVore also downplayed the immediacy of a breakout scenario, arguing that further enrichment, weaponization and delivery would be difficult to execute undetected amid sustained U.S. air operations.

Even if Iran were able to further enrich uranium, he said, assembling a deliverable weapon under active military pressure would present significant technical and operational hurdles.

Still, DeVore acknowledged that long-term control of the uranium would ultimately require a political resolution inside Iran and some form of outside oversight.

What would securing it require?

Nonproliferation experts say securing enriched uranium generally involves more than military force. It requires verified accounting of the material, sustained access to storage sites and either removal or downblending to lower enrichment levels suitable for civilian use.

Davenport said internationally monitored downblending would be the safest option if political conditions allow.

‘The IAEA remains the best place to go back into Iran to monitor the sites, to try to track down and account for the enriched uranium,’ she said, describing downblending as a relatively straightforward technical process compared to attempting to extract and transport highly enriched material in a contested environment.

Both pathways — physical seizure or internationally monitored reduction — depend on conditions that do not currently exist.

Administration officials argue that dismantling Iran’s missile network weakens Iran’s ability to shield a nuclear breakout and reduces the immediate threat to U.S. forces and regional allies.

But suppressing missiles and controlling enriched uranium are separate challenges.

Destroying infrastructure can slow or disrupt a program. Physically locating, accounting for and securing nuclear material requires sustained access, reliable intelligence and — ultimately — political conditions that allow it.

For now, the administration maintains that Iran will not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. How the enriched uranium itself would be secured remains a question without a public answer.

President Donald Trump on Friday said the U.S. is ‘doing very well’ in Iran, nearly a week after the military coordinated with Israel on airstrikes in Tehran that left its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dead.

‘Somebody said, ‘How would you score it from zero to 10?’ I said, ‘I’d give it a 12 to a 15.’ Their army is gone. Their navy is gone. Their communications are gone. Their leaders are gone,’ Trump said. ‘Two sets of their leaders.’

The president made the remarks after Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked at the end of a White House college sports roundtable what was motivating Trump to hold the roundtableat that moment ‘because there is a lot of other stuff going on in the world.’

‘That’s right,’ Trump agreed, adding that Iran’s air force has been ‘wiped out entirely. Think of it. They have 32 ships. All 32 are at the bottom of the ocean. Other than that, they’re doing very well,’ he joked.

‘Our military is doing phenomenally,’ he said. ‘The situation with a very bad and very sick group of leaders who were killing a lot of people, a lot of our people were being killed or were being maimed … And we had a choice. We could take it and go on like that for years or do something about it. And we did something about it.’

Trump added that ‘people are very impressed with our military, and they admire our military with what happened in Venezuela, what’s happening now, what’s happened with the B-2 bombers before this, where they took out the nuclear capability or potential of Iran.’

He added, ‘I think we’re, right now, we’re a country that’s more respected than we’ve ever been respected before.’

Doocy also said to the president earlier, ‘It sounds like the Russians are helping Iran target and attack Americans now.’

‘That’s an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here,’ Trump said, referring to college sports, calling it a ‘stupid question to be asking at this time. We’re talking about something else.’

Earlier Friday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the U.S. won’t accept any deal with Iran ‘except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!’

‘After that, and the selection of a GREAT & ACCEPTABLE Leader(s), we, and many of our wonderful and very brave allies and partners, will work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making it economically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before,’ Trump wrote. ‘IRAN WILL HAVE A GREAT FUTURE. ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN (MIGA!).’’