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Here’s a curious thing that emerged late last night. Government have so declined an American offer to run a joint navel security operation to beef up security in the Gulf amid fears of looking too close to Donald Trump.... 1
Pentagon proposal last week was a joint UK/US op in Strait of Hormuz, but sources say it was rejected despite repeated overtures...amid fears it would look like the UK backed Washington’s wider hardline stance on Iran... 2
Told Foreign Office warned that such action with just two countries would imply the UK backed America’s decision to pull out of the Iran Nuclear Deal - wanted to ‘internationalise it’. But not everyone happy... 3
A Whitehall source said: ‘May and Hunt declined an offer the America last week to join them in a maritime coalition for security in the strait...they wanted to build an international effort’... 4
Added: ‘It’s a major fuck up when it was blindingly obvious we were vulnerable. Weak politics. In light of the threat it was an act of folly, just pathetic.’ 5
Government source does not deny the offer was made by US *before* uk-flagged tanker seized but insists no final decision has been made on action: ‘we are still weighing it up as are other countries and stakeholders.’ 6
So politics and looks came before protecting tankers... security could have been increased but it was not. Someone should be willing to explain why and publicly justify that... Don’t hold your breath.... end
