U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces a «crimes against humanity» complaint at the United Nations over the treatment of the Chagossian people as tensions rise after an Iranian missile attempt targeting Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

Starmer, who is named in the filling, has been reported specifically over the removal of four people who returned to the island in a complaint filed by the attorney general for the Chagossian government.

James Tumbridge’s filing also comes as the exiled leadership stressed the importance of strong ties with the United States, telling Fox News Digital that Washington is a «brother in arms for global security.»

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On March 20, Iran launched two ballistic missiles toward Diego Garcia from more than 2,300 miles away, missing the target but underscoring the base’s strategic importance.

Chagossian leaders have since backed a continued U.S. presence, with First Minister Misley Mandarin saying they want to «uphold the 1966 agreement and consider the U.S. as a brother in arms for global security.»

The 1966 agreement allowed the U.S. to use Diego Garcia for defense purposes, initially for 50 years.

«The desire of the Chagossian government is to have a positive relationship with the U.S. and an ongoing presence on Diego Garcia of the U.S. military,» Tumbridge also told Fox News Digital.

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Diego Garcia is the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and the site of a major United States military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean leased from the U.K. in 1966. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, Tumbridge’s U.N. submission claims U.K. actions risk the «forced depopulation» of the Chagos Islands.

Expulsions began in 1968, when about 2,000 residents were removed, culminating in 1973, and in February the U.K. issued new removal orders to four Chagossians who had returned to the islands.

The filing calls the situation «forced displacement» that could constitute «a crime against humanity by forced depopulation of a territory.»

It warns the British government of a «fresh crime now» that could complete a decades-long erasure of the Indigenous population, stating, «The removal of these four persons would result in the total physical erasure of the Chagossian people,» potentially «amounting to ethnic cleansing.»

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President Trump warned he will use force if a lease deal with Mauritius over Diego Garcia «falls apart» or anyone threatens U.S. operations. (Getty Images)

«The BIOT commissioner accepted that the Chagossians were wronged in the past,» Tumbridge said Wednesday.

«How can the U.K. prime minister, who claims to value the rule of law and human rights, not want to right that wrong and let the people return to their islands?»

The filing also comes as the U.K. considers transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

This followed a 2019 International Court of Justice opinion, while preserving the Diego Garcia base under a 99-year lease.

President Donald Trump criticized the proposed handover, and the U.K. has since paused legislation to formalize the deal, with ministers saying it has become «impossible to agree at a political level.»

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The legislation was expected to be included in the King’s speech outlining the next parliamentary session’s agenda.

Fox News Digital has reached out to 10 Downing Street for comment.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs could be restored as early as July, signaling a rapid pivot by the Trump administration after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs earlier this year, forcing the administration to turn to other trade authorities.

«We had a setback at the Supreme Court in terms of the tariff policy,» Bessent said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal. «But we will be implementing or conducting Section 301 studies — so the tariffs could be back in place at the previous level by [the] beginning of July.»

His remarks come after the Supreme Court ruled in February that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not authorize tariffs.

Trump has billed tariffs as «life or death» for the U.S. economy — underscoring the outsize importance the administration has placed on the issue. 

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Bessent’s comments also come as the U.S. collected more than $133 billion in IEEPA tariff duties as of mid-December, according to data published by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, a figure that later grew to roughly $166 billion by early March 2026.

The administration moved to preserve tariffs in the weeks since the Supreme Court’s ruling to find new ways to implement the import fees, invoking several provisions of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 in order to do so. 

Bessent’s remarks, first reported by Bloomberg, are a sign that the Trump administration plans to enact a combination of statutes under the trade law as it looks to move past the high court’s ruling and find new ways to sustain U.S. tariff pressure. 

The strategy, long-term, appears to focus largely on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office (USTR) to implement «retaliatory import restrictions» against a country that is found to have engaged in unfair or «discriminatory» trade policies or practices towards U.S. businesses. 

Section 301 allows the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate and respond to «unfair» foreign trade practices flagged by the president, though they require a formal period of notice and public comment, delaying enforcement. 

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Trump administration has initiated a flurry of more than 75 investigations under Section 301, according to a report from Alan Wm. Wolff, a senior fellow for the Peterson Institute for International Economics — far outpacing the average annual number of Section 301 investigations initiated during the past five decades.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

That’s not the only lever administration officials have pulled in an effort to keep Trump’s tariffs in place, however.

Trump last month announced new 10% global tariffs — an emergency provision under the trade law that allows a president to unilaterally impose import fees of up to 15% on U.S. trading partners for a period of 150 days, to respond to large and serious «balance of payments deficits,» or instances that risk immediately depreciating the power of the dollar.  

The Section 122 announcement prompted a lawsuit from 24 attorneys general, who argued the move was an illegal attempt to «sidestep» the Supreme Court’s ruling. It also prompted another lengthy hearing before the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan Friday, as judges on the three-member panel weighed the legality of Trump’s effort.

Lawyers for the challenges told the court Friday that upholding the administration’s broader view of the law would effectively turn Section 122 into an all-purpose trade weapon. 

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President Donald Trump during a press conference at the White House on Feb. 20, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)

But Justice Department lawyer Brett Shumate argued that Congress had provided presidents with broad discretion to assess economic conditions.

«A trade deficit was a large driver of a balance of payments deficit in 1974 as it is today,» Shumate said. 

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«We’re not on the gold standard anymore,» he said. «We don’t have a fixed currency, but we can still have balance-of-payment problems.»

El gabinete de seguridad de Israel se reunió este miércoles para evaluar la posibilidad de una tregua en el frente libanés, en medio de la ofensiva intensificada contra el grupo terrorista Hezbollah y las gestiones diplomáticas de Estados Unidos para impulsar un acuerdo, según reportaron Reuters, Times of Israel, The Guardian y Jerusalem Post.

El primer ministro Benjamin Netanyahu ratificó la continuidad de las operaciones militares en el sur del Líbano y la determinación de Israel para restringir cualquier presencia de Hezbollah entre la frontera y el río Litani.

Fuentes diplomáticas libanesas y funcionarios israelíes confirmaron a Reuters y The Jerusalem Post que la administración de Donald Trump ha estado presionando a Israel para que acepte una tregua temporal en Líbano, con el objetivo de crear espacio para negociaciones de paz.

El gabinete israelí finalizó la reunión sin tomar una decisión definitiva sobre el cese al fuego. Algunas fuentes dentro del gobierno de Netanyahu abogan por una mayor escalada, mientras que otros sectores, respaldados por Estados Unidos, consideran que una pausa táctica podría facilitar la salida diplomática al conflicto y reforzar la posición de Israel ante futuros acuerdos.

En paralelo, fuentes de Hezbollah y del gobierno libanés dijeron a Reuters que las gestiones para una tregua están en marcha, aunque se desconoce la fecha de inicio o la duración que tendría el cese de hostilidades.

Los funcionarios libaneses indicaron que el tiempo de la tregua podría estar vinculado a la vigencia del alto el fuego entre Estados Unidos e Irán, cuya extensión se negocia por separado.

Mientras tanto, el premier israelí aseguró en un mensaje grabado que las fuerzas israelíes continúan “golpeando a Hezbollah” y avanzan para “superar” la resistencia en la ciudad clave de Bint Jbeil, uno de los bastiones del grupo chiita en el sur.

Netanyahu afirmó que su instrucción a las Fuerzas de Defensa de Israel es mantener y reforzar la “zona de seguridad” hasta el río Litani, a 30 kilómetros de la frontera, y evitar cualquier presencia de Hezbollah en ese sector.

“He ordenado que toda el área del sur del Líbano hasta el Litani se convierta en una zona prohibida para operativos de Hezbollah”, declaró el jefe del Estado Mayor, teniente general Eyal Zamir, durante una visita a las tropas desplegadas en territorio libanés.

Mientras tanto, en Washington, representantes de Israel y Líbano mantuvieron el martes un encuentro inédito de alto nivel, el primero entre ambos gobiernos en más de cuatro décadas. Netanyahu celebró las conversaciones y señaló: “Estas negociaciones no ocurrían desde hace más de 40 años. Suceden ahora porque somos muy fuertes y los países vienen a nosotros, no solo Líbano”.

Desde la Casa Blanca niegan haber exigido formalmente un cese al fuego, aunque reconocen que darían la bienvenida al fin de las hostilidades como parte de un eventual acuerdo de paz entre Israel y Líbano.

“Esto no es algo que hayamos pedido, ni es parte de las negociaciones de paz con Irán, pero el presidente daría la bienvenida al fin de las hostilidades en Líbano si es parte de un acuerdo”, indicó un alto funcionario estadounidense citado por Times of Israel.

La situación sobre el terreno sigue siendo volátil. El ejército israelí confirmó que cinco soldados resultaron heridos este miércoles durante un ataque con cohetes de Hezbollah en el sur del Líbano.

Hezbollah, por su parte, confirmó el lanzamiento de 40 cohetes hacia el norte de Israel durante la mañana, en respuesta a las incursiones y el avance israelí en el sur del país. El grupo también ha condenado públicamente la decisión del gobierno libanés de iniciar contactos con Israel y ha advertido sobre el riesgo de una mayor fractura interna en Líbano si se continúa con el proceso de negociación.

Irán, que respalda militar y financieramente a Hezbollah, ha exigido que la situación en Líbano forme parte de cualquier acuerdo más amplio para frenar la guerra en Medio Oriente. Washington, por su parte, rechaza que las negociaciones con Irán y Líbano estén formalmente conectadas, aunque reconoce el efecto dominó de los frentes abiertos en la región.

El Ministerio de Salud de Líbano informó que los ataques israelíes han causado al menos 2.100 muertes, más de 7.000 heridos y 1,2 millones de desplazados desde el inicio de la ofensiva. Por su parte, Israel reportó la muerte de 13 militares en Líbano y dos civiles por ataques de Hezbollah.

(Con información de Reuters)