Baku, September 20, AZERTAC

The foreign secretary has chaired an emergency COBRA meeting to discuss the situation in Lebanon and ensure the UK is prepared for any escalation that might require the evacuation of British nationals, Sky News understands.

David Lammy and other ministers met on Friday morning in the wake of an unprecedented wave of attacks against Hezbollah communication devices.

The top diplomat wanted to make sure the UK is prepared for any eventualities, a Whitehall source said.

The military had been put on standby over the summer to launch an emergency evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon when tensions between Israel and Hezbollah previously escalated.

Two ships were already in the region and ready to be used. Additional troops were deployed to a Royal Air Force base in Cyprus to help with any evacuation.

This level of readiness was relaxed slightly in recent weeks as the threat of immediate escalation had been deemed to have passed but the warships remained in the region.

The Whitehall source said that it was thought readiness would be ramped back up again following the latest flare up in tensions.

The source said this was just prudent planning to make sure the UK was as ready as possible to react.

It was not a sign that any evacuation operation was anticipated to be imminent, they said.

"We need to be on the best possible preparedness level," the source said.