Iran launched strikes on Israel overnight after a series of IDF attacks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and armed forces - prompting Sir Keir Starmer to call for a 'de-escalation' of the conflict

Israel has issued a grave warning to Tehran, saying it will 'burn' after retaliatory strikes killed three civilians near Tel Aviv. "The Iranian dictator is taking the citizens of Iran hostage," Israel Katz said. "It is bringing about a reality in which they, and especially Tehran's residents, will pay a heavy price for the flagrant harm inflicted upon Israel's citizens," he continued.

"If Khamenei continues to fire missiles at the Israeli home front, Tehran will burn." Iran has also issued a warning to western nations this morning, including the UK, France and US, that it will strike military bases and ships if it continues to support Israel. Iran's state-owned Mehr News Agency issued the grave warning, saying: "Any country that participates in repelling Iran's attacks on Israel will be subject to Iranian forces targeting all regional bases of the complicit government, including military bases in the Persian Gulf countries and ships and naval vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea."

Iran launched strikes on Israel overnight after a series of IDF attacks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and armed forces - prompting Sir Keir Starmer to call for a 'de-escalation' of the conflict.

According to a read-out of the conversation issued by Number 10, the PM and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, "discussed the gravely concerning situation in the Middle East and agreed on the need to de-escalate”.

“The Prime Minister updated on his conversations with partners so far, and reiterated that the UK is poised to work closely with its allies in the coming days to support a diplomatic resolution."

It comes after an expert says tactics used by Israel in a large-scale military operation against Iran could be indicative of how World War Three would be fought.

Israel launched a bitter attack against Iran on Friday morning, raining down missiles on the capital of Tehran in an attempt to cripple its nuclear infrastructure. Israeli military spokesman Brig Gen Effie Deffrin said that 200 Israeli fighter jets participated in the operation overnight, striking some 100 targets, while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched around 100 drones towards Israel.

Professor Anthony Glees, an academic in security and defence and a lecturer at the University of Buckingham, said the attack is "a blueprint" for how WW3 would play out. Speaking to the Mirror, he explained that there are two ways Europe could be dragged into a worldwide conflict, should things escalate.

"First, that Iran hits back hard, is supported by its admittedly weakened proxies, Hezbollah, the Houthis and what's left of Hamas, as well as its chums in the region and beyond," Professor Glees said. "We recall that Putin is firing Shahed drones at Ukraine and secondly that our enemies and adversaries, Putin, Kim Jong-Un and Xi see a weakened USA under Trump, and deduced, as Netanyahu has done, that now is the time to pursue their own bugbears in Ukraine, South Korea and Taiwan.

"Naturally we hope this won't happen. But if it does, I think what Israel has been doing since about 3am give us a blueprint for what could happen to us here in Europe."

There's "no doubt" our primary enemy would be Putin's Russia, and their first stage of attack would be an "overwhelming" cyber attack, according to the professor.

"It will not only knock out our digital communications networks. We hope the government networks which are far more secure will be resilient enough to withstand such an attack, but who knows.

"We know that the Israelis sent alarms to every single mobile phone user in Israel, warning them about the attack at 3am, including those who had switched off their phones, or put them on silent mode."

"I've no doubt the Israelis took down the Iranian digital networks a few second afterwards," Professor Glees added.

Once all digital communications have been destroyed, normal life in the UK would grind to a rapid halt and there will be panic.

"Next, we here will likely see a massive drone attack taking out our top military brass, the heads of MI6, MI5 and GCHQ and possibly even their buildings, now so very readily identifiable from all the TV shows," Anthony said.

"MI6 currently flying the Pride flag would make it a doubly attractive target to Putin who thinks we're all sexually confused and obsessed."

Anthony also noted that the Israelis, in their first wave of attacks, targeted and killed leading Iranian General Staff Officers, intelligence chiefs and political advisors, and warned that political staff such as Morgan McSweeney could be under attack should conflict ensue.

Meanwhile, it'd be "much easier" for attackers to strike our nuclear weapons sites here, he added, due to their blatant visibility. "We talk about them all the time and they're listed on every map platform, Google or Apple Maps, but if our enemies prefer hard copy, all official Ordnance Maps give precise locations of our sensitive sites."

Professor Glees, a renowned international defence and security expert, said that things would then go quiet.

"Putin, in particular, would wait," he explained.

"Without the ability to communicate, our Government would find it very hard to tell us what to do, and we would be forced to do nothing. Without food the UK could collapse in a week, like every other European democracy.

"Putin will look to see if there are political leaders who pop up to urge capitulation, in which case communications will be restored and the attack will be over, with Russia having won and few shots fired.

"If this doesn't work, then we should expect a sustained attack by air and by sea with conventional forces, an air force, non-nuclear weapons, commandos on the ground, backed up by more conventional forces behind Russian lines."

Professor Glees concluded by pointing out the lesson the United Kingdom can learn from Israel's Operation Rising Lion.

"A pre-emptive strike may become the best option in the days before any attack is predicted.

"What would happen here is that MI6 and GCHQ, still with US intelligence support, would tell us we were about to be attacked by Putin. Our PM (and I think Starmer would be up for this) would order a pre-emptive hit on Moscow. We'd do to them exactly what they were hoping to do to us. And we'd end up secure for the next decade."