LONDON: The United Kingdom announced Tuesday it will be deploying military assets «as part of a future defensive mission to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.»

While the move can be seen as a positive step in repairing relations with the U.S., Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s reluctance to join the U.S. in «Operation Epic Fury» against Iran has still ruffled feathers in Washington — most notably those of President Donald Trump.

Trump has dismissed Starmer as «no Churchill.» In a recent interview with Sky News, the president further complained about the lack of British alignment: «When we asked them for help, they were not there. When we needed them, they were not there… And they still aren’t there.»

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Trump also took aim at the British Navy’s readiness in March, ridiculing the fleet during a White House meeting. 

«We had the U.K. say that, ‘We’ll send’— this is three weeks ago — ‘we’ll send our aircraft carriers,’ which aren’t the best aircraft carriers, by the way,» Trump said, according to Sky News. «They’re toys compared to what we have.»

Two recent reports by a leading military expert and a parliamentary committee may, in part, explain why the U.K. didn’t join the war in an offensive measure.

In a report titled, «Iran War Delivers a Tough Lesson in Hard Power to the U.K.,» Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), wrote, «The outbreak of a new war in the Middle East has led to questions about the U.K.’s relevance in international affairs. Alongside debates about legality and politics, there are some hard truths about military power and the reality of the readiness of the U.K.’s armed forces.»

FILE: Soldiers in action as the British Army demonstrate the latest and future technology used on operations across the globe on Salisbury plain training area on October 29, 2019 in Salisbury, England.  (Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

While the report was written with the war still raging on, Savill stated, «Pressure is growing for the deployment of more U.K. forces to the region and direct involvement in strikes, but the government will need to answer difficult questions about prioritization and the effect that it might be trying to achieve. The consequence is that as much as intent and policy drive U.K. involvement, the practical realities will constrain what the U.K. can do.»

Savill added, «On the defensive side, the U.K. has not been idle… [U.K. assets] which also appear to have included some counter-drone units – have been involved in downing Iranian drones while defending Jordan and Iraq.»

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President Donald Trump delivers remarks as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer applaud following the signing of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 13, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Savill wrote that «The challenge for the U.K. is that in the past few years, the commitments and visible presence of U.K. Armed Forces in the region have been shrinking, as a result of the pressure on the military, and a conscious decision to prioritize elsewhere, most recently in the ‘NATO First’ approach of the Strategic Defense Review of 2025.»

While the Starmer government has committed to increasing defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, experts warn that this investment may be too late to restore the U.K.’s ability to project power globally in the near term.

John Hemmings, director of the National Security Center at Henry Jackson, told Fox News, «The U.K.’s military capabilities have been systematically underfunded over the past 15 years, with the Spending Review and cuts starting in 2009 and 2010 under Prime Minister David Cameron. The Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) at the time stated that the world was headed in a much more dangerous state, but the fiscal devastation of the 2008 Financial Crisis pushed the Government into a series of cuts that were intended to be short-term. Instead, the Cameron Government sent the U.K.’s armed services into a spiral of terminal decline that has lasted until this day,» he said.

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The Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon is moored in the Royal Navy Dockyard in Portsmouth, England, on Oct. 28, 2024. Britain announced on May 12, 2026 that it will deploy autonomous mine hunting equipment, counter drone systems, along with Typhoon jets and HMS Dragon as part of a future defensive mission to secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.  (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Hemmings added, «Consider the Royal Navy, the U.K.’s premier service and source of great power reach; only 25 out of 63 commissioned vessels are actual fighting ships. This force size is impossible to service Britain’s overseas responsibilities and has seen cuts of 50% in only 30 years. In 1996, there were 22 frigates, 17 submarines, 15 destroyers, and 3 aircraft carriers. Today’s First Sea Lord must attempt to carry out the same duties with seven frigates, 10 submarines, six destroyers, two aircraft carriers. In addition, the U.K. underfunded new capabilities like domestic air and missile defenses and advanced command and control systems.»

A U.S. Navy ship launches Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles in support of Operation Epic Fury. (U.S. Central Command Public Affairs)

A second report released last month, by the House of Lords International Relations and Defense Committee titled: ‘Adjusting to new realities: rebalancing the U.K.-U.S. partnership,’ presents several key recommendations where it warned of the over-dependence on the U.S. «Although the U.K. has benefited from closely collaborating with the U.S. on defense, this has fostered a dependency culture leading to a decline in U.K. capabilities and loss of U.K. credibility in Washington. The Government should provide a clear and costed pathway to achieving the commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.»

While the Ministry of Defense did not respond to several requests for comment over the state of forces, Fox News Digital recently reported that the U.K. government said it is reversing an attrition rate in the military, stating that total armed forces strength stood at 182,050 personnel as of Jan. 1, 2026, including 136,960 regular troops, an increase from the previous year.

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The government has also pledged what it calls the largest sustained rise in defense spending since the Cold War, with military spending set to reach 2.6% of GDP by 2027, backed by an additional £5 billion (approximately $6.6 billion) this financial year and £270 billion (nearly $360 billion) in defense investment over the course of the current parliament. Britain has also said it aims to raise defense spending to 3% of GDP by the end of the next parliament.

Analysts say while some in the Trump administration see the U.K.’s absence as a betrayal of the special relationship, others may say it is a tough lesson in the limitations of a mid-sized power that has tried to maintain a global footprint on a shrinking budget.

Disculpas

Los presidentes de Argentina, Javier Milei, y de El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, admirados por Abelardo De La Espriella. Foto: AP

La agresiva campaña del «macho alfa»

Magnate

A Muslim scholar who was forced to flee Egypt after criticizing Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks is warning America’s far left that its alliance with Islamist extremism could end the same way Iran’s did in 1979 — with an Islamic regime seizing power after partnering with leftist factions.

Dalia Ziada, a Middle East scholar and Washington, D.C.-based coordinator at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, later relocated to the United States and said she is now seeing similar and troubling dynamics take shape here.

Her warning comes as a global network of anti-Israel activist groups is mobilizing coordinated «Nakba 78» protests across the United States and around the world this weekend, with organizers using the anniversary of Israel’s founding to stage demonstrations that critics say challenge the Jewish state’s legitimacy, and, in some cases, call for its dismantling

«For five or seven years now, we have been seeing some kind of a ‘sinful marriage’ between the radical left and the radical Islamism, the groups that hate Western liberal democracies and desire to destroy them,» she told Fox News Digital.

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Ziada said Islamist movements, including groups tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, have for years sought to use the Palestinian cause as a way to mobilize support and build alliances with other activist movements in the West, a phenomenon some analysts have described as a «red–green alliance.

She also argued that Islamist movements have increasingly targeted Jewish communities in the West, which she described as a «pillar» supporting liberal democratic systems.

«They agree on one thing, that they need to destroy the West as we know it today and replace it with something else. For the radicalists, they want to replace it with the Marxist system. For the Islamists, they want to replace it with an Islamist system, which they think is the ideal system,» she said.

Global protest network

A Fox News Digital investigation found that approximately 425 organizations — including communist groups, Muslim advocacy organizations and anti-Israel activist coalitions — are operating within a coordinated transnational protest network with a combined funding footprint of roughly $1 billion in annual revenues.

The groups have organized an estimated 736 events across 39 countries this weekend.

Ziada said the alliance reflects what she described as a shared hostility toward Western liberal democracies and has intensified in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

She argued the war in Gaza has provided what she described as a «moral umbrella» for the movement.

«They used that to give themselves some moral legitimacy to go on and accelerate the process of destroying the West,» she said.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest outside Columbia University in New York City on Feb. 2, 2024. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/VIEWpress)

Lessons from Iran

Ziada pointed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution as a cautionary example.

«We saw this exactly happening in Iran in the 1970s. The Islamists used the left because the legitimacy of the left is stronger, because they don’t come from a religious background,» she said. «They allied the communists there, made them believe that we all are going to change Iran and make it a better place. And how it ended in 1979, the Islamic Revolution happened. The Islamists took over the country and the first group they sacrificed … was the communists, the leftists in Iran.»

Ziada warned that similar dynamics could emerge in the United States if ideological alliances continue to deepen, arguing that movements built around shared opposition can fracture once power shifts.

She said that while the groups involved may appear aligned in the short term, their long-term goals are fundamentally incompatible — a pattern she said has played out repeatedly in the Middle East.

She said such alliances are often temporary, warning that once power is secured, more extreme factions tend to dominate.

A split image shows Americans held hostage during the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran alongside modern-day protests in Iran. (Bettmann/Getty Images; Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)

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She said the protests themselves are expected to follow a familiar pattern of anti-Israel demonstrations that she described as «very well organized worldwide.»

«I don’t think this time it would be any different in the general sense of demonizing Israel, trying to blame Israel for everything,» she said.

Ziada said protesters are likely to frame Israel using terms such as «apartheid» and «genocide,» language she argued points to a broader, coordinated alignment of groups operating with similar messaging and goals.

Ziada said the term «Nakba,» meaning «catastrophe,» has been reframed over time, arguing it was originally used in part to criticize Arab leaders for rejecting a proposed Palestinian state — a context she said is largely absent from modern protests.

«I wouldn’t say it’s kind of a bureau… but they all agree on one thing, which is destroying the United States or weakening the Western world,» she said.

A demonstrator holds a picture of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in Tehran on June 14, 2025, showing solidarity with the government against Israel’s attacks and marking Eid al-Ghadir. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

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Ziada said she has already seen the consequences of such alliances firsthand in the Middle East.

«I have seen my native Egypt being destroyed by these groups, by these people, and I’ve seen the entire Middle East actually falling under this. And I don’t want to see the United States, the country that has given me my education, has given my career, has given me a refuge when these radicals tried to kill me — I don’t want to see being destroyed by the same bad guys.»