Royal Navy ships and RAF helicopters were on standby in the Middle East on Sunday night over fears of a regional war.
The HMS Duncan, a Type-45 destroyer, and RFA Cardigan Bay, a transport ship, were in the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defence said.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said military personnel had been deployed to embassies, while families of staff at the embassy in Beirut were withdrawn for their safety.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, reiterated his advice to all British nationals in Lebanon to “leave now” while they can.
In the first major foreign policy test for Labour, John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said: “Our Armed Forces will always step up to support British citizens around the world and reinforce regional stability with their professionalism and bravery.”
Saudi Arabia joined France, Canada and Jordan in calling on their citizens to leave Lebanon.
“In a highly volatile security context” French nationals were “urgently asked” to avoid travelling to Lebanon, and those already in the country should leave “as soon as possible”, the foreign ministry in Paris said.
France also urged its nationals living in Iran to “temporarily leave”.
Private Henry Moon and Lieutenant Dermod Green Anderson were killed during the Battle of Arnhem 80 years ago. The were honoured with a military funeral in the
After a decade building quantum-computing hardware, Jacques Carolan decided he needed a change. “I wanted to work on technologies that we
On Tuesday, the US said it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in the mass explosions as it urged restraint by Iran
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML