- The Stena Impero was seized in the Strait of Hormuz at 4pm yesterday by Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces
- British-registered tanker was ordered to turn to the north and was taken into Iranian territorial waters
- Warship HMS Montrose, which was patrolling the Persian Gulf, did a U-turn and raced to help captured ship
- A second vessel, the British-operated Mesdar was seized by Iran but was released after being inspected
- Following an emergency COBRA meeting, Iran was warned it faces 'serious consequences' for their actions
Military chiefs will this week brief Britain’s new Prime Minister on the mounting Iran crisis and tell him: ‘Send in the Marines’.
After the dramatic hijacking of the Stena Impero oil tanker carrying 23 crew by Iranian Special Forces, top brass were last night devising a list of options for a rapid military response.
It is understood they will seek the green light to deploy Royal Marines on British vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz to act as a deterrent to further aggression.
The involvement of the elite Iranian troops in the capture of the Stena Impero was broadcast on Iranian state television yesterday.
Its release came during a day of drama which saw the Iranian charge d’affaires in London summoned to the Foreign Office and another meeting of Cobra, the UK Government’s emergency coordination committee, to discuss the rapidly escalating crisis.
Iran had earlier released a propaganda video showing the moment Iranian Revolutionary Guard commandos drop from a helicopter to hijack a British tanker.
Footage shows troops wearing ski masks and carrying machine guns rappelling to the deck of the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero from their aircraft last night.
It comes as Jeremy Hunt expressed his 'extreme disappointment' in the regime. He explained that any measures to be taken over Iran’s seizure of the British-flagged tanker in the Gulf will be announced in Parliament on Monday.
The UK foreign secretary wrote on Twitter: 'Just spoke to Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and expressed extreme disappointment that having assured me last Saturday that Iran wanted to deescalate situation they have behaved in the opposite way.'
A defence source revealed today that a Royal Navy warship raced to help the vessel but arrived ten minutes too late.
HMS Montrose, which was patrolling the Persian Gulf, was forced to do a U-turn when it received orders to assist the UK-flagged Stena Impero, which had been seized by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's seizure of the British ships was a deliberate act of provocation because the ships were in international waters.
Mr Hunt said the Iranian actions yesterday raised 'very serious questions' about the security of British and international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Hunt stressed the UK-flagged tanker was in Omani waters when it was seized 'in clear contravention of international law'.
'Stena Impero was seized in Omani waters in clear contravention of international law, it was then forced to sail into Iran.
'This is totally and utterly unacceptable. It raises very serious questions about the security of British shipping, and indeed international shipping, in the Strait of Hormuz
Mr Hunt said MPs would be updated about what 'further measures' the Government will take, on Monday, adding that the threat level had been raised to three.
Germany and France have supported Britain by condemning the actions of the Iranian regime. Berlin has described the seizure as an 'unjustifiable intrusion' on shipping using the Persian Gulf.
A spokesman for the German foreign ministry said the ship and crew should be released immediately.
Both Paris and Berlin stressed the need to 'de-escalate' the situation in the Gulf.
The Foreign Office earlier summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires, Mohsen Omidzamani, following the incident.
Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders know that their most powerful card is the most direct: to threaten the passage of oil and gas through the busy Strait of Hormuz, where the shipping lanes are only two miles wide.
The strait has correctly been described as a choke point – and choking is very much what gas and oil producers in the Gulf now face. The IRGC has already sabotaged six ships moored in Gulf harbours by attaching mines to their hulls. It used a missile to shoot down one of America’s 35 Global Hawk surveillance drones. And now it has seized a tanker flying the British flag.
UK ships have been told to stay away and others will do the same. But remember this: 85 per cent of Gulf oil is exported to Asia – China, India, Japan, Singapore and South Korea – and without that oil these states would be plunged into economic crisis, with knock-on effects for the entire global economy.
As, day by day, the tension rises, so does the risk of armed conflict – perhaps as the result of a misunderstanding or an accident. While Trump realises that his voters do not want another American-led war in the Middle East – the recent ones in Iraq and Afghanistan will have cost $5 trillion by about 2040 when the bills for injured veterans come in – some of the hawks around him do. Trump has already felt obliged to bolster the US Navy in the region, to shoot down an Iranian drone and to move 500 troops to Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday , this crisis will drop into the lap of a completely new prime minister, almost certainly Boris Johnson, whose record of dealing with Iran as Foreign Secretary went no further than issuing ill-judged remarks about jailed mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe that have helped keep her behind bars.
A deal offering some sort of trade-off between the impounded Grace 1 and the Stena Impero is now an absolute priority for the new PM. While we are about it, the UK should reimburse Tehran the £400 million it owes for Chieftain tanks which Iran paid in the days of the Shah. We took the money but did not deliver the tanks.
We should be urging the Asian nations that depend upon Gulf oil exports to open their bulging wallets to help protect these vital shipping routes. What responsibility has been shouldered by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Indian premier Narendra Modi or Xi Jinping, the President of China? The UK has somehow found itself at the heart of the crisis even though we don’t import much Gulf oil.
If America is foolish enough to attack, Iran will punch back – and with serious consequences for the region and the wider world. For an economy as precariously poised as ours, a huge hike in oil and gas prices would be catastrophic.
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