A boat tries to control the flames from a tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman last week | AFP via Getty Images UK plans to deploy marines to Persian Gulf: report The move comes amid rising tensions with Iran.

LONDON — The United Kingdom will send elite forces to the Gulf of Oman to protect its warships amid rising tensions with Iran, according to the Sunday Times.

The planned deployment follows Thursday's attacks on two oil tankers, which the U.S. has blamed on Iran. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Friday said the U.K. would make its own assessment, but believed the U.S. claim that Tehran was behind the incident.

One hundred Royal Marines are expected to be deployed “within weeks” to join naval ships operating from the U.K.'s new naval base in Bahrain, the Times reported, citing unnamed military sources.

The Marines will police the strait from helicopters and smaller boats, in a “force protection” mission that has been planned for several weeks due to rising tensions with Iran, according to the newspaper.

Yet the British defense ministry sought to downplay the move, telling the paper: “This is a preplanned training deployment and is in no way related to the ongoing situation in the Gulf of Oman."

Iran has denied any involvement in the oil tanker attacks, but the U.S. claims it has video evidence proving Iranian forces were responsible.

Tensions between Iran and the West have soared after Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal last year and reimposed sanctions on the country. In May, the U.S. canceled waivers that had allowed a small group of countries to continue buying Iranian oil despite the reimposition of U.S. sanctions.

In December, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned that "if one day [the U.S.] want to prevent the export of Iran’s oil, then no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf."

The narrow shipping lanes in the region are packed with oil tankers. A third of the world’s crude oil supplies passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which separates Iran from Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Tehran has protested to the U.K. ambassador to Iran, Rob Macaire, after Hunt said Iran was "almost certainly" behind the attack, according to the BBC. However, a U.K. Foreign Office official said it was not a formal summons, as reported in other media.

Military and national security officials will discuss Britain’s role in the Gulf of Oman crisis at an emergency meeting on Monday, according to the Times.