UK working on plans to help its citizens leave Gulf countries

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - British foreign minister Yvette Cooper said on Monday that her team was looking at all options, including evacuation, to help hundreds of thousands of UK citizens leave Gulf countries which are now being targeted by Iran.

There are an estimated 300,000 British citizens - residents, families on holidays, and some in transit - in Gulf countries, and 102,000 people in the region have registered their presence with the UK government since the attacks started on Saturday.

When asked whether she was planning an evacuation from those countries, Cooper said officials were setting up "support systems".

"We're working on every possible option," she told Sky News. "We have to recognise the scale of this as well, and also the fact that there are strikes still underway."

Some 240,000 British nationals live in Dubai alone, according to 2024 estimates by relocation firm John Mason International Movers.

RAPID DEPLOYMENT TEAMS

For now, British nationals should follow local advice and shelter in place, Cooper said, adding that she wanted airspace to be reopened.

In the meantime, she said her department had sent rapid-deployment teams to the region to work with the travel industry.

Cooper also confirmed an unmanned Iranian-made drone had struck the runway of a British Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, but provided no further details.

Global air travel was heavily disrupted over the weekend as major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai and Abu Dhabi, stayed closed after U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leaving tens of thousands of passengers stranded.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Emirates, as well as other airlines, have all cancelled their flights from London to Dubai.

Aviation data firm Cirium estimates roughly 90,000 passengers a day transit through Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

Meanwhile, a British couple sentenced to 10 years in Iran on spying charges, Craig and Lindsay Foreman, are still being held in Evin prison in Tehran during the bombing of the Iranian capital, a family spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

They remain "very alert to, and concerned about, the danger around them", the spokesperson said.

The family spoke to the couple over the weekend and they were unhurt but relatives remain concerned for their safety, the spokesperson added.