READY TO STRIKE

BRITAIN and the US began evacuating key personnel from the Middle East yesterday amid expectations of military strikes on Iran.

- BY CHRIS HUGHES

The embassy in Tehran was shut down, diplomats pulled out and Foreign Office travel advice concerning Iran changed.

At the main al-Udeid military base in Qatar - used by British and American forces - air raid sirens were tested and personnel moved to “hard protection sites”.

The evacuations come amid heightened fear of retaliation after US President Donald Trump's veiled threat to act “very strongly” if Tehran executes protesters it detained following a bloody crackdown that is believed to have killed at least 2586 people.

Iran has warned it could make a preemptive strike after alleging - without offering evidence - that Israel and the US orchestrated the demonstrations within its borders.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK and its allies would turn the screws on Iran.

Speaking in Helsinki yesterday as she also warned Russia Britain will “tighten the chokehold on its dark fleet”, Cooper said: “The brutality that we've seen from the regime is horrendous... We have condemned this in the strongest of terms, and we want to see the stronger economic and diplomatic pressure placed on Iran.”

Israeli forces are on high alert for a Tehran revenge attack, believing their country would be targeted if the US did hit Iran.

One source said: “Israel has adjusted its defensive posture as it is believed an American strike on Iran is now very possible.