Britain is preparing to evacuate thousands of UK citizens from the Middle East as experts fear the threat of war is far from over as Iran is expected to direct its proxy militias in the region to carry out more bloodshed.
More than 7,000 Brits will fly home from Lebanon alone as Iran has a large contingent of Hezbollah supporters there. The Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel to the country.
Embassies throughout the world remain on high-alert against attacks and are protected by increased security.America and Iran stepped back from the brink of war last night, but the region remains a powder keg.
Britain is preparing to evacuate thousands of UK citizens from the Middle East as experts fear the threat of war is far from over as Iran is expected to direct its proxy militias in the region to carry out more bloodshed.
More than 7,000 Brits will fly home from Lebanon alone as Iran has a large contingent of Hezbollah supporters there. The Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel to the country.
Embassies throughout the world remain on high-alert against attacks and are protected by increased security.
Not only are local forces loyal to Iran a threat, but there are armed groups with links to Iran throughout the whole of Asia and that are also a threat in South America and Africa.
The proxies could be anything from State supporters like the Shia sect Assad regime in Syria to Shia militia groups throughout Iraq and Syria, who are heavily-armed and supported by Iran.
There are also Lebanese Hezbollah groups, funded by Iran as well as the Popular Mobilisation Units, which comprise of more than 40 mostly Shia militia groups.
A senior British security source told the Mirror: “The whole region remains a powder keg. Lebanon is very tense and could quickly erupt as Iran urges its proxies to take action, militants are generating hatred across the country.
“We have a team ready to fly out and scope out how we would extract people.
“The priority is to locate available ships or ferries that we can hire and get into Lebanon and transit people to Cyprus.”
A similar operation was carried out in 2006 during a war between Hezbollah and Israel.
However, influential Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr yesterday called on militia groups not to carry out attacks. He said: “I call on the Iraqi factions to be deliberate, patient, and not to start military actions, and to shut down the extremist voices of some rogue elements until all political, methods have been exhausted.”
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