UK may send mine-hunting drones to help open Strait of Hormuz: Energy Secretary Ed Miliband

Britain is contemplating sending mine-hunting drones and ships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end Iran’s stranglehold over the key oil shipping route following a call to allies by US President Donald Trump. Energy secretary Ed Miliband said on Sunday that the UK and its allies could do “a range of things” to secure the route, which has been blocked by Iran and led to a fuel supply shortage and the consequent surge in energy prices.

Miliband’s intervention comes after Trump called for allies to send warships to protect their own tankers in the region and help secure the waterway.

The energy secretary confirmed that ministers were talking to their allies about how the UK could help secure the vital waterway after the US president, Donald Trump, urged Britain and other countries to deploy ships to the region.

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About 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through the strait, and its effective closure since the start of the war, which has entered its third week, has sent oil prices rocketing from approximately $65 a barrel to about $100.

The energy price spiral is an alarm for the western countries as governments face the prospect of inflation.

“It is very important that we get the Strait of Hormuz reopened. And we have already been talking with our allies, including the US, about this,” Miliband told BBC.

“There are different ways that we could contribute, including with mine-hunting drones. All of these things are being looked at in concert with our allies … Any options that can help to get the strait reopened are being looked at,” he added.

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Britain’s mine-hunter drones trick mines into detonating safely by flying in a pattern that makes them look like passing ships.

Ministers are also considering the domestic fallout of higher energy prices, which threaten to derail the UK’s nascent economic recovery.

On being asked whether the government would cancel a rise in fuel duty planned for September, Miliband said ministers would “stand by” the British people. “We will stand by the British people in this, in this crisis, and we’ll do what it takes to do that,” he said.

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Miliband was speaking a day after Trump called on the UK, China, France, Japan, South Korea, and others to send their warships to the region in an appeal to nations affected by the price rise.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social, “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated.”

“In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water. One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”

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The Strait of Hormuz has been gripped by conflict after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had taken “complete control” of the passage, obstructing the flow of oil out of the Middle East and pushing up energy prices across the globe.

There is growing concern that Iran has started placing sea mines in the strait while numerous oil tankers have come under fire as they attempted to pass through the strait.

Earlier, in his first public statement this week, Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz as a means of pressuring the US.

In turn, Trump has threatened to “wipe out” Kharg Island, a vital part of Iran’s oil infrastructure, if Tehran does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.