The Guardian reports that the U.K. should not expect any U.S. help when it comes to protecting the passage of British ships in the Persian Gulf. That’s in spite of the fact that the current conflict over tankers is directly connected to sanctions imposed after the United States peremptorily withdrew from the multinational agreement. The “ take care of their ships” statement seems especially harsh given that two British tankers and their crews are currently being held in Iranian ports.
However, speaking on Fox News, Pompeo denied that tensions in the region originated from the U.S. breaking the agreement, or from the U.S. imposing sanctions, or from the series of U.S. face offs with Iranian ships and drones. Instead, according to Pompeo, the simply that Iran is “a bad regime.” Still, no matter how bad they are, and no matter that Pompeo accused Iran of being engaged in “State piracy” in the capture of British ships, he doesn’t indicate that the United States intends to do anything about it.
If Pompeo’s actions represented a genuine desire from the Trump White House to deescalate the series of near-conflict situations that have taken place near the Strait of Hormuz over the last few weeks, it might actually be a relief. Instead, the intention seems to be to punish the U.K. for honoring an agreement even after Trump walked away. And they seem to represent a desire to create a “U.S. led” force within the Gulf while the U.K. is now working to create a “European force.”
In the last month, Iran has taken a series of actions clearly designed to generate international incidents. The Iranian regime seems to have calculated that this is the best method to drag all players back to the table and generate an agreement that might relax sanctions. The capture of the two British tankers came after the U.K. detained a Iranian tanker in the Mediterranean on suspicion of violating sanctions.