Royal Navy to protect British ships from Iran attack in Strait of Hormuz

The Royal Navy has been tasked with accompanying British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz to protect them from Iranian attack, Sky News has learnt.

HMS Montrose, a Type 23 frigate, conducted the first accompanied mission overnight on Wednesday into Thursday, according to shipping industry sources.

The Department for Transport has advised the shipping industry to give sufficient notice of their travel plans in the area.

Ships might be grouped together in de facto convoys or accompanied individually depending upon how many are travelling on a given day, according to sources.

The move comes after the security threat for British-flagged vessels was raised to its highest level following the seizure last Friday of the Stena Impero tanker by Iranian forces as it was passing through Omani waters in the Strait of Hormuz.

The government had asked all British-linked tankers and other vessels at the weekend to avoid passing through the hugely important waterway for an "interim period".

It is now easing this restriction with the start of these accompanied transits.

"Freedom of navigation is crucial for the global trading system and world economy, and we will do all we can to defend it," a government spokesman said.

"The Department for Transport has therefore updated its advice to confirm that the Royal Navy has been tasked to accompany British-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz, either individually or in groups, should sufficient notice be given of their passage."

The new system appears designed to bolster protection to shipping and to stop shipping companies from ditching the red ensign in favour of other countries' flags because of the specific threat from Tehran to go after British-linked vessels.

Iran is targeting Britain after Royal Marines helped to seize an Iranian super tanker off the coast of Gibraltar at the start of the month.

The Grace 1 tanker, which is still detained in Gibraltar, is accused of carrying oil bound for Syria in breach of EU sanctions.

Tehran has called the seizure an act of piracy. It threatened to retaliate by seizing a British-flagged tanker.

The heightened threat means a second major warship, HMS Duncan, a Type 45 destroyer, will be arriving in the Gulf next week to help provide security to international shipping.

Britain, the United States and other nations will also be meeting at a US base in Florida on Thursday to discuss plans to protect ships in the Gulf from the threat of attack by Iran.

The Gulf crisis is the most acute foreign policy challenge facing the incoming British prime minister, Boris Johnson.

The "force generation" meeting will take place at Central Command in Tampa as part of a US-led push to build a coalition of navies to escort commercial tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and other key waterways in the Middle East as well as to provide increased surveillance, according to two Whitehall sources.

Countries taking part may offer a sense of what warships, surveillance aircraft and personnel they would be able to contribute.

It is not clear how a plan announced by Jeremy Hunt, the former foreign secretary, for a European-led maritime protection force will fit with the US initiative, which is called Operation Sentinel.

Mr Hunt told parliament on Monday the European force would be separate to the US coalition but he hoped it would be complementary.