Britain has started sending a warship to accompany all British-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, a change in policy announced Thursday after the government previously said it did not have resources to do so.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has hinted that Tehran is open to a possible tanker swap with Britain and indirect talks with the United States over its nuclear program and sanctions.
France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Denmark support a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, three senior EU diplomats said on Tuesday after Britain proposed the idea following Iran’s seizure of a tanker.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday accused Iran of exploiting civilian companies and maritime channels to smuggle weapons manufacturing equipment to its Lebanese proxy group, Hezbollah.
An Israeli representative was present at a briefing Sunday morning by US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, who provided information on the US naval-defense operation dubbed ‘Operation Sentinel’ being undertaken in response to recent Iranian aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, Israel National News reported.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday said the UK wanted to establish a European-led maritime protection force for the Gulf but emphasized that London was not seeking a confrontation with Iran.
Iran’s supreme leader vowed on Monday that his country would not give up its stand on Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Iran’s Intelligence Ministry on Monday said it uncovered a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency spy ring, arrested 17 suspects and sentenced some to death, according to a report from the country’s semi-official news agency said.
U.S. military officials see a high risk of ‘unintended conflict’ with Iran due to rising tensions in the Persian Gulf, according to top Pentagon official.
Britain on Saturday denounced Iran’s seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf as a ‘hostile act’ and rejected Tehran’s explanation that it seized the vessel because it had been involved in an accident.
The United States is sending troops and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia as tensions flare with Iran, the Pentagon announced late Friday.
Senior US officials are set arrive in the region next week to further discuss the Trump administration’s forthcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a senior US official told The Times of Israel Sunday.
Hezbollah has reportedly deployed its forces on the Lebanon-Israel border, The Daily Beast reported over the weekend, linking the move by the Iranian-backed Shiite terrorist group to the rising tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized two oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, officials in London said, in a move that appeared to infuriate American and British leaders.
The U.S. Treasury Department on July 18 imposed additional sanctions on Iran that target its nuclear-enrichment program.
Iran said Thursday its Revolutionary Guard seized a foreign oil tanker and its crew of 12 for smuggling fuel out of the country, and hours later released video showing the vessel to be a United Arab Emirates-based ship that had vanished in Iranian waters over the weekend.
Iran’s state television said Thursday that regime forces captured a foreign tanker with a crew of 12 accused of smuggling oil.
During a trilateral meeting between the national security advisers of Israel, the US and Russia in late June, Jerusalem, and Washington demanded that Moscow ensure the withdrawal of Iran’s forces from Lebanon and Iraq, as well as from Syria, Channel 13 News reported Tuesday.
Britain will send a third warship to the Persian Gulf, though the move is not related to the current Iran crisis, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Tuesday.
A small oil tanker from the United Arab Emirates traveling through the Strait of Hormuz entered Iranian waters and turned off its tracker two days ago, leading the US to suspect Iran seized the vessel amid heightened tensions in the region, an American defense official said Tuesday.