May ‘rejected US offer to protect UK ships’
Former Conservative leader says PM’S decision to ‘not upset the Iranians’ was a ‘major miscalculation’
THERESA MAY has been accused of making a “major miscalculation” by turning down an offer from Donald Trump of US protection for British ships in the Gulf.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said the US had “made it clear” that if Britain wanted help it would be provided, but that Mrs May “didn’t want to upset the Iranians”.
It is understood Penny Mordaunt, the Defence Secretary, flagged up the offer with Mrs May but that the Prime Minister decided against accepting it.
Foreign Office sources have insisted there had been “no specific offer of help” from the US, but Mr Duncan Smith, chairman of Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign, accused the department of spin and insisted a concrete offer had been made.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “Britain was offered whatever assistance is necessary to protect British ships, and commanders out there were willing to help.
“The Government failed to take them up on the offer and the reason was that we didn’t want to upset the Iranians. They made a major miscalculation. It was a big misjudgement and it goes all the way to the top.”
Mr Johnson spoke to Mr Trump last week, when the US president said he would do a “great job” if he becomes prime minister. Mr Duncan Smith said the offer from the US predated the phone call, and was “done through channels”.
Mr Duncan Smith insisted the offer was separate from a more general US proposal for an international coalition to protect shipping in the Gulf, which is still at an embryonic stage.
On July 10, the British warship HMS Montrose prevented the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from attempting to seize a Uk-registered tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, but on Friday the frigate was too far away to be able to prevent two other British ships being seized.
Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, has said Iran’s actions are a “tit-for-tat” response to Britain’s seizure of the Iranian tanker Grace 1 in Gibraltar after it was suspected of breaking international sanctions by taking oil to Syria.
Yesterday, Tobias Ellwood, the defence minister, said the Royal Navy was “too small” to cope with the threat to British shipping in the Gulf.
Britain has just 19 frigates and destroyers at its disposal, about a third of the size of its fleet in 1982 during the Falklands war, although modern warships are far more powerful and better defended. Mr Ellwood said: “If we want to continue playing a role on the international stage, bearing in mind that threats are changing, all happening just beneath the threshold of all-out war, then we must invest more in our defence, including our Royal Navy.
“Our Royal Navy is too small to manage our interests across the globe … and that’s something the next prime minister will need to recognise.”
Mr Hunt has said he would increase defence spending by £15billion if he became prime minister.
Sir Michael Fallon, the former defence secretary, said yesterday that Britain could have joined with the US and other nations in protecting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while distancing itself from the Trump administration decision to tear up the Iran nuclear deal.
Sir Michael said: “We don’t have to support Trump’s position to recognise Britain and America have to be part of an international protection force for the international waterway.”
The British-registered Stena Impero remains in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas after armed Iranian soldiers seized control as it passed through international waters. A second Britishowned tanker, the MV Mesdar, was also boarded but later released. Neither had any British crew members.
Iran’s Press TV station yesterday broadcast new footage which appeared to show the Iranian flag being hoisted over the Stena Impero in the port of Bandar Abbas. Armed troops also patrolled the decks in the footage, which was run with the headline “IRGC forces manage to lead tanker to Iran shore
The Iranian regime increased pressure on the West yesterday by threatening to introduce a toll on UK and US merchant ships in the Gulf.
Mustafa Kavakebian, a senior member of Iran’s parliament and the head of Iran-uk Parliamentarians Friendship Group, told Iran’s Tasnim news agency: “I say to the British Foreign Secretary that you have seized our oil tanker illegally and by the order of the US. But your ship has been seized in the Persian Gulf because of contravening the international maritime regulations.
“As such, instead of talking about threats and sanctions against us, release our tanker in Gibraltar urgently so we are not forced to start charging tollage and duty on British and American ships that pass through the Gulf.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “This is completely untrue. We have extensive ongoing co-operation with the US about maritime security in the Gulf, and have had for years. Discussions are under way with the US and other partners about how best to enhance protection for our shipping given the increased threat.”
The Prime Minister will chair a meeting of Cobra emergency committee this morning. despite UK warship’s interference”.