The Gulf standoff with Iran is more proof that the dream of ‘Global Britain’ has shrunk before it has even begun
At a time when we need them most, bilateral disagreements and conflicts of interest with a number of nations have left us with very few friends. The soon-to-be prime minister has a lot of pieces to pick up, at home as abroad
Now you could argue that a small and successful show of military might is just the sort of distraction the UK government is in need of at a time when it is beleaguered on so many fronts. Less so, I would imagine, a naval clash with Iran in or near disputed waters in the Gulf, and there are many questions hanging over what exactly happened on 10 July.
One question might be why the first news of a stand-off between a British frigate in defence of an Isle-of-Man flagged commercial tanker and three (scaled back from the initial five) Iranian gunboats came not from the UK’s own authorities, but from the United States (which, incidentally, had one of its surveillance aircrafts overhead).
Another might be where exactly the reported confrontation took place: was the tanker, British Heritage, in international, or disputed, waters? The UK Ministry of Defence is quite clear that the frigate, HMS Montrose, was in international waters “at all times”, but it declined to comment on the location of the tanker.
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