He told reporters that all options for dealing with Iran remained on the table, while Israeli defence secretary Moshe Yaalon said "one way or another Iran's nuclear programme will be stopped".
The Ministry of Defence said "all the options were on the table" but said a sale of the base, once Britain's busiest civilian airport, was not part of a specific programme.
That is no less damning a criticism, reflecting the toll on the alliance's fighting capability of inadequate or poorly conceived defence spending by too many of its members (see table).