Britain's foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, told somber lawmakers Monday in a packed House of Commons that Britain was looking to help shape a European-led naval protection mission in the Strait of Hormuz following Friday's seizing of a British-flagged oil tanker in the gulf.
Hunt surprised some lawmakers by refraining from imposing sanctions on Iran for seizing the British-flagged and Swedish-owned Stena Impero. He irritated some Conservative colleagues by turning to European allies to form a maritime protection force in the Strait of Hormuz rather than taking up a U.S. offer for joint patrols in the gulf.
Hunt spoke amid mounting criticism in parliament for falling short in protecting British shipping in the gulf. He told lawmakers that the maritime force it is discussing with European allies, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, would be separate from U.S. forces in the strait. He is urging British tankers not to sail the strait in the meantime.
But he said that there were would be further discussions about how the European-led force would "complement recent U.S. proposals in this area." Officials say the British are turning to Europe rather than the United States, as London doesn't want to be seen endorsing President Donald Trump's current "maximum pressure" confrontation with Iran.
Hours before Hunt spoke, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News that Britain must protect its own ships from attack in the gulf. British officials say Pompeo's comment came after he had been informed of Britain's plans.
"The responsibility ... falls to the United Kingdom to take care of their ships," Pompeo said when asked about any possible U.S. role in the dispute.
Earlier, outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting of Britain's emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBRA) committee, which considered the options available to persuade the Iranians to release the vessel and the crew, 18 of whom are Indian, including the captain. Of the other crew members, three are Russian, and two are from Latvia and the Philippines.
A key question for the committee was how to better protect British-flagged vessels passing through the strait, British officials said. Between 15 to 30 British tankers navigate the crucial passageway every day.
Without assistance from its allies, Britain will have difficulty providing the necessary support, declared British defense officials, who say relentless spending cuts are now coming home to roost. Gunboat diplomacy requires gunboats, and Britain now only has 19 frigates and destroyers available to provide home defense and fulfill far-flung global commitments.
That, according to analysts, is a third of the size of the Royal Navy in 1982 during the Falklands War.
In an interview Monday with The Times, Tobias Ellwood, one of Britain's defense ministers, acknowledged the Royal Navy is now too small to fulfill a full global role.
"The threats we're facing are changing in front of us, the world is getting more complex," he told the newspaper. "If we are wanting to continue to play this influential role on the international stage, it will require further funding for our armed forces, not least the Royal Navy. Our Royal Navy is too small to manage our interests across the globe," he added.
Nonetheless, resource-limited or not, former British military chiefs say more could have been done to prevent an Iranian seizure. They are fuming at the lack of contingency planning before the Stena Impero was boarded Friday and taken into Iranian territorial waters.
They argue it was always likely that Iran would grab a British-flagged vessel after British marines impounded an Iranian-owned tanker off the waters of Gibraltar earlier this month for breaching European Union sanctions on shipping oil to Syria.
Just days before the Stena Impero was seized, two extra warships were dispatched to the gulf to back up a frigate, the HMS Montrose, that was already stationed there. That frigate tried to stop the Iranians but was an hour's sailing time away and arrived too late to do anything.
Richard Dannatt, a former top British general and a member of the House of Lords, joined the burgeoning criticism.
"It would have been prudent to prevent our shipping from being seized," he told reporters. "We failed. It was known that the Iranians would try to seize a British ship, and it would have been wise to ensure none were in danger. It's perfectly possible to come up with an escort for ships through the strait."
"We need to invest in frigates and destroyers," he added.