United Kingdom considers deploying naval assets to Strait of Hormuz

Britain could send extra military assets to the Strait of Hormuz to deter any attempt by Iran to block Persian Gulf oil tanker traffic, the country’s defense secretary said Tuesday, as Tehran accused the European Union of trying
to create tension with a ban on the purchase of its oil.

Two British and French warships and the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln had entered the Gulf on Sunday to show Tehran they would not tolerate any interference with global shipping, Philip Hammond told reporters.

Iranian leaders have repeated long-standing threats to close off the Strait, which handles a fifth of the world’s oil, after the EU imposed the embargo Monday as part of sanctions to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country’s
controversial nuclear program. Iran summoned the Danish ambassador to Tehran on Tuesday over the EU’s oil embargo; Denmark is currently the head of the rotating EU presidency.

“Elements within the European Union, by pursuing the policies of the U.S. and adopting a hostile approach, are seeking to create tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Ali Asghar Khaji,
a senior Foreign Ministry official, as saying. He called the EU decision “irrational” and “without logical justification.”

Other Iranian officials argued the sanctions would not work, or could even benefit Iran.

“The oil embargo will lead to higher prices. Europe will be the loser and Iran will earn more because of high prices,” Iran’s oil ministry spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar told state TV.

During talks in London on Tuesday, Australia said it would also sign up to the embargo — though acknowledged it currently has negligible oil imports from Iran.

The three warships — which included Britain’s HMS Argyll frigate and France’s frigate La Motte Picquet — that entered the Gulf on Sunday had sent “a clear signal about the resolve of the international community to defend the right
of free passage through international waters,” Hammond said.

“We also maintain mine-counter measures vessels in the Gulf, which are an important part of the overall allied presence there, and of course the U.K. has a contingent capability to reinforce that presence should at any time it
be considered necessary to do so,” he said.

Britain’s defense ministry declined to offer specific detail on what assets and personnel are currently in the Persian Gulf, but said it had about 1,500 Navy personnel in the region east of Suez, which includes the Middle East
and Indian Ocean.

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Posted by Hamza Jahangir on Jan 25 2012. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry