Keir Starmer's stance on Iran has left UK-US relationship 'heavily damaged', ex-White House official tells GB News

Delivering a statement to MPs this afternoon, the Prime Minister reaffirmed that the UK will "not join offensive action".

Ahead of the Prime Minister's statement, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth accused "traditional allies" of "clutching pearls" and not taking action.

Asked for his verdict on Operation Epic Fury's success so far, Mr Cohen told GB News: "Well, this has been the most complex aerial operation that's taken place in modern history, really in world history, and it's going extremely well.

"As the president said, he's already achieved way, way more of his objectives than he thought he would by this point. And the Secretary of War also highlighted how quickly they're going through their target list. So this is, again, unprecedented levels of success just from the air as well."

Defending the actions of Mr Trump, Mr Cohen declared that the President had an "imperative" to end things "once and for all".

He said: "Everybody that was part of the coalition and the global war on terror over the past 25 years, including our British friends, know very well that more likely than not, they have a comrade in arms that was killed or maim by Iranian weapons.

"And that's from Iraq to Afghanistan, that doesn't even include the attacks that they've done against the United States over the past 30 years.

"They have an enormous amount of blood on their hands, and the president had an imperative to act to end this threat once and for all."

Questioned on the state of the UK-US relationship, Mr Cohen argued that the US may "never be able to gain trust" of the UK again, following Sir Keir's changing stance on Iran.

He suggested: "The Prime Minister gave a very strategically and what I would say morally confused speech the other day, he contorted himself in all sorts of ways.

"But look, at the end of the day, this relationship is heavily damaged, and honestly, it's unfortunate because we could have stopped missiles and drones.

He added: "Had we been able to use the bases on Diego Garcia from the first instance, I don't think that the US will ever be able to gain the regain the trust, at least in the near term, that we can depend on the UK through thick and thin."

Martin agreed, concluding: "I think you're exactly right, and they are very, very sobering words.

"A special relationship, the bond of blood, the band of brothers seems to have been cast aside - another victim of withholding international law above everything else."

President Donald Trump has said the US is prepared to "go far longer" in its campaign against Iran as he addressed dignitaries at the White House this afternoon.

He said: "We have the strongest and most powerful, by far, military in the world, and we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections.

"We projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that.

"We'll do it. Whatever it takes."