The British government has announced that, with concerns about the safety of their commercial vessels, the Royal Naval will send a warship to accompany every single UK-flagged ship through the Strait of Hormuz.



Last week, a British-flagged oil tanker was seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, in retaliation for Britain seizing an Iranian tanker near Gibraltar. Britain has raised concerns that this means more ships might be at risk.



Britain has been courting other nations to join an EU-led maritime force in the area to protect more ships. Germany has agreed they want to be involved, and a few other EU nations have expressed some interest in the matter.



It is noteworthy that Britain has started escorting unilaterally, since the Royal Navy had very recently claimed they lacked the resources to escort all of the UK-flagged ships.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz