Couple of things:

our very best friends and allies
Thought that was us? Don't make us make you a colony again.

And, I wouldn't believe the press, this could be no more than updating contingency plans, or even moving the file to another storage area. If there's one thing I do know it's that the press might tell the truth, just not always in the right context which can take "British troops invade the Spanish mainland" to "British troops post rotate to Gibraltar".

That being said invading Iran wouldn't be a good idea for us atm what with redundancies and downsizing.