00:00Britain is putting on hold a deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands after it was criticized by U
00:07.S. President Donald Trump.
00:08The Indian Ocean island chain is home to the strategic U.S.-British Diego Garcia Air Base.
00:14Washington had previously backed the agreement made last year it would see Britain cede the islands to Mauritius,
00:20but retain control of the military base on a 99-year lease. U.S. support is needed for the deal
00:26to go ahead.
00:27British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said on Saturday London would try to persuade Washington to give its formal approval.
00:34Trump said in February that the deal was a big mistake, despite having said it was the best that Starmer
00:40would get.
00:41Ties between the U.S. and U.K. have become strained over Trump's ambitions to acquire Greenland
00:46and Starmer's reluctance to get Britain involved with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
00:53Not happy with the U.K.
00:55A British government spokesperson said ensuring the long-term operational security of Diego Garcia remains a priority
01:02and that it still believes the agreement is the best way forward.
01:06Britain forcibly displaced up to 2,000 indigenous Chagosians in the late 1960s and 1970s to establish the base.
01:14Recent operations launched from Diego Garcia include bombing strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in 2024 and 2025
01:21and humanitarian aid deployments to Gaza.
01:25The campaign group Indigenous Chagosian People has raised questions about what they said were enormous sums of money wasted on
01:32a collapsed negotiation.
01:34They also doubted the legality of the plan, which they say denies the Chagosians their right to self-determination.
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