The United Kingdom has agreed to join a US-led maritime mission to patrol the Persian Gulf region in the wake of a series of “attacks” on oil tankers there that was unfoundedly blamed on Iran.
The British Navy has already dispatched three warships, HMS Montrose and HMS Kent, Type-23 submarine-hunters, and HMS Duncan, a Type-45 air-defence destroyer, to the Gulf as it has officially signed up for the US-proposed Operation Sentinel against a purported Iranian threat.
Incidentally, HMS Kent left Portsmouth earlier this week together with another Type-45 air-defence destroyer, HMS Defender, which is set to start a mission in the Asia-Pacific region, but can potentially cover a wide area, including the Indian Ocean, meaning that it would be within an easy reach of the Gulf if needed.
“Following constructive discussions at an international conference in Bahrain last week [31 July], the UK has agreed to join an international mission [that] will see the Royal Navy working alongside the US Navy to assure the security of merchant vessels in the Strait of Hormuz”, the UK government said in a statement on 5 August.
London's decision to send another warship to the Gulf marked a clear shift from its original plans to set up a European-led naval mission there to escort British-flagged oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, even though its key allies, Germany and France, have expressed readiness to pitch in. They have, however, been reluctant to support the US initiative out of…
