In the modern era Britain has always been America's junior partner when it comes to launching Middle East wars, and so in the opening days of Trump's Operation Epic Fury targeting Iran, there was anger in Washington as the Starmer government appeared to waffle and was fence sitting.

However by Monday and Tuesday, the United Kingdom is as expected now aligning directly with Washington, having belatedly authorized the use of British military bases to support American operations targeting Iran's missile capabilities.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer approved the request after a 24-hour legal review, granting Washington access to UK bases for what he called a "specific and limited defensive purpose."

"The only way to stop the threat is to destroy the missiles at source, in their storage depots or the launchers which are used to fire the missiles," Starmer said in a social media statement. "The U.S. has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose. We have taken the decision to accept this request."

The bases will likely be used for US B-2 bombers to reach deep inside Iran. In the opening waves of attacks Saturday, these same B-2s were flying all the way from airbases in the US mainland.

Starmer likely got political cover in the fact that regional bases where British troops are stationed have come under Iran's intense retaliatory strikes.

This included a drone strike late Sunday on the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, which may have actually been launched by Iran-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Starmer was apparently worried about the 'legal status' of the US-led operation, but now the British government has definitively stated the action is "solely focused on ending the threat of air and missile attacks against regional allies unlawfully attacked by Iran and who have not been involved in hostilities from the outset."

Still, London is taking pains to say this "does not signal the U.K. having any wider involvement in the broader ongoing conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran."

President Trump has wanted much more direct involvement in military action by Britain:

But like with other regional wars of the past couple decades it's likely only a matter of time before Britain jumps in more fully into the conflict. The Brits have been involved in everything from Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria in recent years, especially going to back to the chummy Blair-Bush days just after 9/11.