{"id":32329,"date":"2026-05-09T19:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32329\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T19:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T19:03:17","slug":"britain-sends-warship-to-gulf-iran-stalls-on-us-peace-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/32329\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain sends warship to Gulf; Iran stalls on US peace deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON, United Kingdom \u2014 Britain announced on Saturday that it was pre-positioning a warship in the Middle East ahead of a multinational mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran cast doubt on American diplomatic sincerity following fresh naval confrontations in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the strait, when conditions allow,\u201d a Ministry of Defence spokesperson told AFP.<\/p>\n

The ministry said the deployment would strengthen confidence among commercial shipping operators and support mine-clearance efforts once hostilities end.<\/p>\n

Britain and France said last month that military plans to secure the strait were coming together and would succeed in restoring trade flows through the vital passage. <\/p>\n

At a two-day meeting in London in April, involving more than 44 countries, military planners discussed the practicalities of the multinational mission. Some 40 countries are understood to have agreed to participate.<\/p>\n

Iran stalls on US peace proposal<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tehran kept Washington waiting for its response to the latest US peace proposal. President Donald Trump had said on Friday that he expected Iran\u2019s answer \u2014 to a deal that would extend a fragile truce and launch peace talks \u2014 \u201csupposedly tonight\u201d. But if Iran did send Pakistani mediators a response, there was no public sign of it.<\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called into question the reliability of US leadership in a call with his Turkish counterpart. \u201cThe recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,\u201d he said, according to an Iranian account published by the ISNA news agency.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on Friday that Washington\u2019s proposal was still \u201cunder review\u201d. Washington has sent the proposal via Pakistani mediators, seeking to extend the truce to allow for talks on a final settlement of the conflict, launched 10 weeks ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Friday that it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d for Tehran to control the key oil route.<\/p>\n

Qatar\u2019s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met with US Vice President JD Vance in Washington on Friday and discussed the Pakistani-led efforts to broker a permanent peace. Iran has attacked sites in Qatar during the war, pointing to the wealthy emirate\u2019s role as host of a major US air base.<\/p>\n

Tanker incidents deepen mistrust<\/p>\n

On Friday, a US fighter jet fired on and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of challenging its naval blockade of Iran\u2019s ports. An Iranian military official told local media that the country\u2019s navy had responded \u201cto American terrorism with strikes\u201d and that \u201cthe clashes have now ceased\u201d.<\/p>\n

The incident followed a flare-up overnight from Thursday to Friday in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital international sea lane that Iran is seeking to control in order to extract tolls from foreign vessels and wield economic leverage over the United States and its allies.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Markets rattled as US, Iran clash in Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the war began on February 28, about a fifth of the world\u2019s oil was shipped through the strait. Iran has largely closed it since, throwing global markets into turmoil and driving up oil prices. The US later imposed its own blockade of Iranian ports in response. On Sunday, Trump announced a US naval operation designed to reopen the strait to commercial shipping, only to abandon it on Tuesday in favour of a return to negotiations.<\/p>\n

Saudi sources told AFP that the kingdom had refused permission for the US military to use its bases and airspace for the Hormuz operation, with one source saying Riyadh \u201cfelt it would just escalate the situation and would not work\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oil slick off Iran\u2019s coast<\/p>\n

Satellite images have revealed an oil slick spreading off the coast of Iran\u2019s Kharg Island, a key oil export terminal. The apparent spill, off the island\u2019s west coast, appeared to cover more than 20 square miles (52 square kilometres), according to global monitor Orbital EOS.<\/p>\n

\"AA satellite image shows an oil slick spreading off the coast of Kharg Island, a key oil export terminal for Iran. While offshore infrastructure in the wider area could be a potential source, the Conflict and Environment Observatory was unable to identify a definitive point of origin or attribute the spill to a specific cause. Photo: Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026 \/ AFP<\/p>\n

A UK-based non-governmental organisation, the Conflict and Environment Observatory, told AFP that by Saturday the slick was \u201cmuch reduced\u201d and may have been caused by leaking oil infrastructure. Kharg Island lies in the Gulf, far north of the narrow Strait of Hormuz, and is at the heart of Iran\u2019s oil export industry \u2014 a lynchpin of its battered economy.<\/p>\n

Lebanon ceasefire under strain<\/p>\n

A parallel ceasefire in Lebanon is also under strain. <\/p>\n

Lebanese state media reported three strikes south of Beirut on Saturday, despite a three-week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. An AFP correspondent saw two stricken cars and emergency workers along a highway linking Beirut with the country\u2019s south, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital.<\/p>\n

The strikes come as Lebanon and Israel, officially at war since 1948, are to hold direct negotiations in Washington next week \u2014 talks that Hezbollah vehemently opposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON, United Kingdom \u2014 Britain announced on Saturday that it was pre-positioning a warship in the Middle East…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,24,14094,5489,6,461],"class_list":{"0":"post-32329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-straight-of-hormuz","11":"tag-top","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116546175246694365","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}