President Donald Trump has told the UK’s Daily Telegraph he was “very disappointed” with Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s initial refusal to let Washington use British military bases in its war against Iran, AFP reports.

Trump told The Daily in an exclusive interview that Starmer’s initial refusal over the use of the Indian Ocean Chagos Islands base was unlike anything that had “happened between our countries before”, adding: “It took far too much time. Far too much time.”

Starmer later relented, saying he had agreed to British bases being used for “specific and limited defensive purpose”.

Editorial

Updated 08 Aug, 2026

Danger ahead

PAKISTAN has already paid a heavy human price this monsoon, even as another dangerous spell approaches. NDMA figures...
08 Aug, 2026

Israeli impunity

ANY hope that Hamas’s decision to disarm would lead to a breakthrough has been dashed for one simple reason:...
08 Aug, 2026

Flawed investigations

THE botched case of a young Karachi businessman, Mir Raza Ali, who died under suspicious circumstances, took a new...
07 Aug, 2026

Terrorist havens

DESPITE the use of both carrots and sticks by the international community, the Afghan Taliban refuse to cut their...
Updated 07 Aug, 2026

Mineral wealth

Any future agreements involving critical minerals must be subjected to rigorous legal, financial and technical scrutiny.
07 Aug, 2026

Growth denied

THE Sindh government’s agreement with the World Bank to combine health, nutrition, sanitation, social protection...