Iran has issued a stark warning to Britain, urging it not to escalate the crisis in the Middle East by sending warships to the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said that the presence of French and British warships in the key shipping route would be met with a decisive and immediate response from Iran’s armed forces.
The warning comes after the UK Ministry of Defence announced that the Royal Navy was deploying HMS Dragon to the Middle East, where it could join an international mission to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the mission, planned alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, would only take place once fighting in the region ends.
In a social media post, Gharibabadi stated: “Any deployment and stationing of extra-regional destroyers around the Strait of Hormuz, under the pretext of ‘protecting shipping’, is nothing but an escalation of the crisis. The presence of French and British warships… will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Iran also threatened to tighten its grip on the strait, with its army warning that countries complying with US sanctions against Tehran would face difficulties crossing the waterway. The US has enforced a blockade of Iranian ports in response to the closure of the strait, and has continued to attack ships attempting to pass through.
Iran warned it would launch a heavy assault on US assets in the Middle East if there are further attacks on vessels. Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani cautioned that using the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure tool would only deepen the crisis in the Gulf.
