LONDON

The UK defense secretary on Thursday pushed back on Israeli claims that Tehran has the ability to target European countries, including Britain, saying there was “no assessment of Iranian plans to strike London.”

Speaking on Sky News, John Healey repeated that there was no intelligence indicating any planned attack on the UK, adding that Britain has the “resources and the alliances in place” to defend itself.

“We do that not just because we’ve got first-class forces, but we have an alliance with 31 other NATO nations,” he said. “It’s together that we defend NATO and British airspace, NATO and the British homeland.”

His comments come amid concerns about escalating tensions in the Middle East and questions over the UK’s military preparedness.

Healey also defended the government’s response, despite criticism over the time taken to deploy a Royal Navy ship to the Eastern Mediterranean and the limited number of UK forces in the region.

“I think the actions speak for themselves,” he said. “I’m proud of the readiness. I’m proud of the response of our armed forces.”

“It means our British pilots now have been flying defensive missions to protect our lives and protect our own people from day one,” he added.

Asked whether there had been shortcomings in military planning, he pointed to years of underinvestment.

“You can’t make good 14 years of underfunding and hollowing out overnight,” he said, implicitly criticizing the Conservative Party’s years-long hold on the government. “But we’re beginning to fix that.”