Netanyahu says Israel warned UK of Iran base plot

JERUSALEM: Israel had warned Britain that Iran was planning an attack on an airbase, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as he denounced the UK government for still pressuring his government over treatment of the Palestinians.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Wednesday (Sep 30) there were "strong indications" that Iran was involved in suspicious activity near the Fairford airbase, which is used by US forces in their war on Iran.

Netanyahu, speaking to Fox News late on Wednesday, said Israel tipped off Britain about a plot shortly before Burnham's government on Sep 8 announced sanctions on products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"You want to hear how absurd things are there, and how far the anti-Israel propaganda has gone?" Netanyahu told the US network's conservative host Sean Hannity.

"We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack, and it's an Iranian-sponsored attack. And pretty much the next day, they slapped sanctions on us," he said.

Netanyahu has spent decades warning of threats from Iran's cleric-run state, sometimes meeting scepticism elsewhere.

US President Donald Trump earlier spoke of a possible Iranian role in the incident, in which a resident reported masked men near vans heading to the Fairford air base.

Since taking office in late July, Burnham has taken a tougher stance on Israel, saying his predecessor did not do enough.

He imposed the sanctions after a spate of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank against Palestinians, with nearly daily physical attacks and vandalism.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband described the violence, which come as Netanyahu promotes new settlements, as ethnic cleansing.

There have also been attacks against Israelis, with a Palestinian shooting dead a settler in September.