Iran war enters seventh day as first charter flight to evacuate Brits from Middle East touches down in UK
The Government's first charter flight to evacuate British nationals from the Middle East has touched down in the UK - as Iran war enters its seventh day.
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The plane took off from Muscat, the capital city of Oman, at 1.36pm GMT on Thursday.
The Titan Airways flight arrived at London Stansted Airport just before 1am on Friday.
Thousands of British nationals are stuck in the Middle East, after US-Israeli strikes on Iran prompted retaliatory strikes by Iran across the region.
More than 140,000 Britons have registered their presence in the Middle East with the Foreign Office and some 4,000 have returned home so far.
Etihad Airways announced it would be resuming a “limited commercial flight schedule” on Friday until March 19, including flights to and from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow, Manchester and Dublin.
A couple who arrived back in the UK on the flight from the Middle East sheltered in the car park beneath their hotel in Dubai.
Amelia Reid and Samuel Sharp travelled to Dubai for a long weekend, arriving last Friday, and by Saturday evening, they were sheltering under their hotel.
Mr Sharp said: "Saturday, we ended up sleeping in a car park in the basement of the hotel with about 100 other people, after the alarms went off on our phones.
"Didn't get told if it was safe to go up or not, just went up for breakfast and I think we heard a massive bang after that, so it's just on edge, on edge for four days."
Ms Reid, who had been travelling in a wheelchair, said: "We left Dubai yesterday lunchtime, went straight to the Oman border, and went on a coach all the way to Muscat airport in the hope we'd get on the Government plane."
Fazal Chowdhury, who described himself as a "risk averse" man, drove straight to Oman from Dubai when the war broke out has complimented the UK Government's work in getting Britons home.
He arrived at Stansted on the first UK Government chartered flight out of the Middle East with his wife on Friday morning, said the whole Government team were "really good" despite having to wait at the airport in Muscat.
Mr Chowdhury said: "There was a bit of room for improvement because there were some technical issues with the flight so we were in the airport for 20 hours, but I don't think there's much to complain about.
"To be honest they were all working really hard and they were all really sincere, the whole team there were really good.
"The ambassador came and explained what happened, she was really good. We're all here now, it was a bit of a shambles on the night when we thought we were going to get on the flight and then we were sort of trapped on buses and had to go back."
He described himself as a "risk averse kind of guy" and said he was happy to be back in the UK, having lived in Dubai for the last three years.
A man with a young family described a "terrible" wait for the Government chartered plane to take off from Oman yesterday as they arrived back home on Friday morning.
A man, who wished to remain nameless, said he, his wife and young child spent 36 hours in Muscat airport, after fleeing Dubai last weekend.
He said: "I mean, to be honest, UAE government has been doing very good with the interception and making people safe, but it's just that I thought it's not worth any of this, even if something minor happens, especially for the family, it's not good."
He drove 300 miles from Dubai to Oman earlier this week.
He continued: "I think today was better, but the day before was very terrible. We took almost four hours for check-in. And then after that, we were told we can't fly because pilot is on overtime, so we had to go back to the hotel."
The US and Israel have continued to batter Iran with nationwide strikes, and in turn, Iran has kept up retaliatory strikes on Israel, US bases and across the region.
The Prime Minister insisted that the special relationship is “in operation right now” and said on Thursday that an additional four British Typhoon fighter jets are being deployed to Qatar to strengthen “defensive operations” in the region.
Sir Keir Starmer sought to highlight UK-US intelligence-sharing on a “24/7 basis” amid the spiralling war.
It came as Mr Trump repeated his assertion that Britain’s response has been “very disappointing” and that it should be allowing America to use its bases “without question or hesitation”.
Sir Keir has tried to limit British involvement in the conflict but decided on Sunday that the joint UK-US Diego Garcia site in the Chagos Islands and RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire could be used by the US for “defensive” strikes to protect countries being targeted by Tehran.
However, the decision not to grant permission for the first wave of military action prompted anger from Mr Trump, who said he was “not happy with the UK” and, in a personal attack on the Prime Minister, added: “This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
The two leaders last spoke during a call on Saturday evening, Sir Keir confirmed on Thursday.In an interview with American news website Axios, Mr Trump said he should be involved in choosing Iran’s next supreme leader.
He dismissed possible successor Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the assassinated supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as a “lightweight”.
The US president is reported to have said “I have to be involved in the appointment”, comparing the situation to his removal of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.
The Iranian regime has not announced a new supreme leader.
Defence Secretary John Healey has declined to rule out UK aircraft taking part in strikes on Iran during a trip to Cyprus.