British Government's emergency meeting on tanker crisis
British Prime Minister Theresa May will chair an emergency Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR, also known as COBRA) meeting on Monday.
The main topic of the meeting will be the protection of maritime transport after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized a British-flagged oil tanker “Stena Impero” in the Persian Gulf.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister is expected to receive updates from ministers and officials on the situation and will discuss the maintenance of the security of shipping in the region.
Freezing Iran’s assets in Britain will also be a topic of discussion in this meeting.
In the afternoon, Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt will update the members of parliament on the decisions made by the government.
Hunt previously thanked Germany and France for their support of Britain. Germany, France, the European Union, and several Arab countries of the region have urged Iran to release the detained British ship and solve the problems between Tehran and London through diplomacy.
Tobias Ellwood, the British defense minister told Sky News on Sunday that Britain must have a military presence in the middle east in order to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. He also stated that his country is deliberating on sanctions against the Islamic Republic.