Royal Navy to protect British ships from Iran attack in Strait of Hormuz
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Royal Navy to protect British ships from Iran attack in Strait of Hormuz
The Department for Transport has advised the shipping industry to give sufficient notice of their travel plans in the area.
By Deborah Haynes, foreign affairs editor
Thursday 25 July 2019 13:49, UK
Image:The HMS Montrose, pictured in 2012, conducted the first mission to escort ships
The Royal Navy has been tasked with accompanying
British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz to protect them from
Iranian attack, Sky News has learnt.
HMS Montrose, a Type 23
frigate, conducted the first accompanied mission overnight on Wednesday
into Thursday, according to shipping industry sources.
The Department for Transport has advised the shipping industry to give sufficient notice of their travel plans in the area.
Ships
might be grouped together in de facto convoys or accompanied
individually depending upon how many are travelling on a given day,
according to sources.
Image:The Stena Impero was seized by Iranian authorities last week
The move comes after the security threat for British-flagged vessels
was raised to its highest level following the seizure last Friday of the
Stena Impero tanker by Iranian forces as it was passing through Omani
waters in the Strait of Hormuz.
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The government had asked all British-linked tankers and other vessels
at the weekend to avoid passing through the hugely important waterway
for an "interim period".
It is now easing this restriction with the start of these accompanied transits.
"Freedom of navigation is crucial for the global trading system and
world economy, and we will do all we can to defend it," a government
spokesman said.
"The Department for Transport has therefore
updated its advice to confirm that the Royal Navy has been tasked to
accompany British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz, either
individually or in groups, should sufficient notice be given of their
passage."
The new system appears designed to bolster protection to
shipping and to stop shipping companies from ditching the red ensign in
favour of other countries' flags because of the specific threat from
Tehran to go after British-linked vessels.
Iran is targeting
Britain after Royal Marines helped to seize an Iranian super tanker off
the coast of Gibraltar at the start of the month.
The Grace 1 tanker, which is still detained in Gibraltar, is accused of carrying oil bound for Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
Tehran has called the seizure an act of piracy. It threatened to retaliate by seizing a British-flagged tanker.
The
heightened threat means a second major warship, HMS Duncan, a Type 45
destroyer, will be arriving in the Gulf next week to help provide
security to international shipping.
Britain, the United States
and other nations will also be meeting at a US base in Florida on
Thursday to discuss plans to protect ships in the Gulf from the threat
of attack by Iran.
The Gulf crisis is the most acute foreign policy challenge facing the incoming British prime minister, Boris Johnson.
The
"force generation" meeting will take place at Central Command in Tampa
as part of a US-led push to build a coalition of navies to escort
commercial tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and other key waterways
in the Middle East as well as to provide increased surveillance,
according to two Whitehall sources.
Countries taking part may offer a sense of what warships, surveillance aircraft and personnel they would be able to contribute.
It
is not clear how a plan announced by Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign
secretary, for a European-led maritime protection force will fit with
the US initiative, which is called Operation Sentinel.
Mr Hunt
told parliament on Monday the European force would be separate to the US
coalition but he hoped it would be complementary.
The Grace 1 tanker, which is still detained in Gibraltar, is accused of carrying oil bound for Syria in breach of EU sanctions.