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The U.S Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has called on the UK to take care of their ships in the Strait of Hormuz following increasing tensions between Tehran and the West since Iran seized a British oil tanker. On Monday, Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News and said, “The responsibility in the first instance falls to the United Kingdom. This is a bad regime, it’s not honoring the people of Iran. They have not conducted what amounts to national piracy, a nation-state taking over a ship that’s traveling in international waters. This is the kind of behavior we’ve seen out of Iran for 40 years”. He added, “The United States has a responsibility to do our part, but the world has a big role in this too to keep those sea lanes open”.

The confrontation between the United States and Iran has climbed since last year when Donald Trump pulled out of an international agreement signed by his predecessor Barack Obama. This agreement guaranteed Iran access to world trade in return for curbs to its nuclear program. Iran has since then stepped up its nuclear activity beyond limits in the deal. Washington has blamed Tehran of attacking ships in the Gulf. Trump ordered retaliatory airstrikes in June after Iran shot down a US drone.

The United States has come to bombing Iran in its 40-year history of animosity. Washington said last week it had shot down an Iranian drone, but Tehran denied. On Friday, a spokesperson for the U.S Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement that the department was in contact with the United States vessels in order to ensure their safety. Moreover, the Associated Press reported the Trump administration was preparing an international coalition of Like-minded Nations and called an Operation Sentinel in an effort to block Tehran from preventing commercial shipping in the region.