Britain to set up permanent naval base in Bahrain

MANAMA, Bahrain, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Britain is establishing a permanent military facility in the Middle East for the first time since removing its last permanent base over four decades ago.

At a security conference in Manama, Bahrain, U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond signed the deal, which would expand the Mina Salman Port in Bahrain, adding aircraft carriers and destroyers to four British minesweepers already located at the facility.

"This new base is a permanent expansion of the Royal Navy's footprint and will enable Britain to send more and larger ships to reinforce stability in the Gulf," U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said.

Since September Britain has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led coalition that includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France and Netherlands.

The new base would support such operations as well as those against piracy in the region. It will also be the first permanent British military facility to be located in the Middle East since a 1968 decision to close all U.K. bases east of the Suez Canal by 1971.

The expansion of facilities at the Mina Salman Port is slated to cost $23 million, most of which will be paid by Bahrain, with Britain shouldering ongoing costs.

Bahrain already hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet at a larger, adjacent facility.

Despite Bahrain's majority Shia population's complaints of abuses by the Sunni government,, the threat of Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria have made Gulf monarchies more open to such deals with Western governments.

"We must never allow the isolationists to convince our people of the superficially attractive proposition that distance, or oceans can insulate," Hammond said in a speech marking the tenth anniversary of the Manama dialogue.

"To our partners in the Gulf my message is this: Your security concerns are our security concerns."