Britain is preparing a mine-sweeping mission to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, positioning itself at the centre of a wider Franco-British coalition that would move in once a peace deal ends the three-month-old Iran war and gives commercial shipping the confidence to return.
Hundreds of British sailors are preparing aboard the RFA Lyme Bay off Gibraltar – the UK territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula – for a possible deployment to the Gulf, where the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted shipping and pushed up the cost of fuel, fertiliser and food.
The mission remains contingent on diplomacy: British officials say any operation to secure the strait would begin only after hostilities have ended and an agreement is in place.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel is being loaded with ammunition and sonar-equipped mine-hunting sea drones before linking up with the UK destroyer HMS Dragon and allied ships for air support. The force would then travel through the Suez Canal towards the Persian Gulf as part of an international effort led by Britain and France.
Since the start of the crisis, Paris and London have agreed to turn diplomatic support into a practical military plan, convening dozens of partner countries behind an independent, strictly defensive mission to protect merchant shipping, reassure insurers and carry out mine-clearance once conditions allow.
Armed Forces Minister Al Carns has presented the preparations as a practical response to a crisis that London did not start but is now helping to solve. When recently asked by reporters visiting the vessel in Gibraltar what US President Donald Trump wanted from his British ally after criticising NATO partners for not doing more, Carns said Britain had the capacity to “pull together 40 nations” and shape a response to a complex and unforeseen problem.
Clearing a path through Hormuz
The Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed by Iran since the US and Israel launched the war on 28 February, blocking at least 6,000 ships from passing through, according to Carns. Before the conflict, the waterway carried around a fifth of global shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas, making its reopening a critical prize for governments and markets alike.
The immediate priority would be to clear a transit lane allowing around 700 stranded ships to leave. A second lane would then be cleared for vessels entering the Gulf. Fully clearing the strait, however, could take months or even years.
According to the Royal Navy’s Mine and Threat Exploitation Group, Iran could have deployed a wide variety of mines, including rocket-propelled, cabled and seabed devices triggered by sound, movement or light. The British mine-sweeper is carrying autonomous systems that can scan the seabed and water column with sonar in about half the time it would take a crewed vessel to map the same area.
However, there remains uncertainty over whether mines have in fact been laid. To date, the US has not found or destroyed any mines in the strait and reported that no ships have been damaged, although commercial traffic has continued at much lower levels.
Diplomacy edges forward
The military preparations are unfolding alongside cautious diplomacy. President Trump said at the weekend that a deal with Iran had been “largely negotiated”, although he later urged both sides to take their time and said the US blockade on Iranian ships would remain in place until an agreement was “reached, certified, and signed”.
This comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a cautious tone on Monday, saying Washington would give diplomacy every chance to succeed but would deal with Iran “another way” if no acceptable agreement emerged. He said there was a “pretty solid” proposal on the table to reopen the strait, begin a time-limited nuclear negotiation and move towards a broader settlement.
Iran, for its part, said progress had been made but warned against expecting an imminent breakthrough. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran and Washington had reached conclusions on “a large portion” of the issues under discussion, but added that no one could claim a signing was close.
Iranian officials have accused Washington of shifting its positions, while Tehran is also seeking sanctions relief and the release of frozen funds.
The emerging framework, according to US officials, would see Iran agree in principle to reopen Hormuz in exchange for the lifting of the US naval blockade. More difficult questions – including the fate of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, nuclear limits, sanctions and regional conflicts involving Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah – would be pushed into further negotiations, potentially over a 60-day period.
Markets have responded with some optimism, with oil prices falling 6 percent to two-week lows as hopes of a settlement grew. Yet even a deal that firms up the fragile ceasefire in place since early April will not immediately end the global energy squeeze.
(With newswires)
