LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired an emergency security session today to discuss how to respond to Irans seizure of a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
The meeting of security ministers and officials discussed how to secure shipping in the sensitive region, which is vital to the worlds oil supply.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt plans to brief Parliament on the Friday seizure of the Stena Impero tanker and its crew of 23, now in a heavily guarded Iranian port.
Also today, Iran released new video showing the ships crew for the first time, an apparent attempt to show they were unharmed. None of the 23 are British nationals but are mostly Indian and also Filipino, Russian and Latvian nationals.
Mays official spokesman, James Slack, said Iran has seized a ship under false and illegal pretenses and it needs to release it and its crew immediately.
He said giving an individual naval escort to all U.K.-flagged ships is not an option because of the volume of traffic. But he denied cuts have made the Royal Navy too small.
We have the largest military budget in Europe, and we are investing in a world-class Royal Navy, he said.
Britain is considering a number of options to raise the economic and diplomatic pressure on Iran but officials say military operations are not being considered at the moment. Britain is also seeking support from key European allies in an effort to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping.
The tanker crisis is unfolding in the final days of Mays leadership. The Conservative Party plans to name her successor Tuesday, and the new prime minister either front-runner Boris Johnson or Hunt is expected to take office Wednesday.
Fridays seizure came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran stemming from President Donald Trumps decision last year to pull the U.S. from Irans nuclear accord with world powers and reinstate sweeping sanctions on Iran.
Steps have been taken to prevent further incidents in the coming days while longer range options are discussed. Maritime industry publication Lloyds List said there are currently no U.K.-flagged ships heading to the Persian Gulf and eight U.K.-flagged vessels anchored there after a government advisory to such vessels to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
Restoring the free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is of critical importance to the worlds energy supplies because one-fifth of all global crude exports pass through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman.
Iranian officials say the seizure of the British oil tanker was a justified response to Britains role in impounding an Iranian supertanker two weeks earlier off the coast of Gibraltar, a British overseas territory located on the southern tip of Spain.
Britain says the two incidents cannot be compared, asserting that Britain acted lawfully off the Gibraltar coast to prevent illegal oil shipments to Syria that would have violated European Union sanctions while Iran broke international maritime law by forcing the Stena Impero to change course and go to Iran.
Britain says the tanker was in Omani waters at the time, which Iran disputes.
