The UK is set to join the US in its efforts to safeguard commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz.
The British government announced Monday afternoon that the Royal Navy will assist the US Navy in the highly-sensitive waterway in an "international maritime security mission" following recent strife in the region.
"The UK is determined to ensure her shipping is protected from unlawful threats and for that reason we have today joined the new maritime security mission in the [Middle East] Gulf," said British defense secretary Ben Wallace.
"Upholding international maritime law and freedom of passage is in all our interests. We are seeing, across our seas and oceans, too many incidents that seek to challenge such freedoms."
The US first floated the idea of a group of nations escorting their flagged ships 10 July, after two tankers were allegedly attacked by Iran near the strait, where nearly a third of all seaborne oil passes each day.
Since, tensions in the region have only escalated. On 19 July, Iran seized a UK-flagged tanker in retaliation for the seizure of the Ukrainian-flagged 300,600-dwt Grace 1 (built 1997) in Gilbraltar, which was supposedly transporting oil to Syria.
Monday, Iran claimed to have seized another tanker, this one Iraqi, though the ship appears to be a supply vessel and Iraq has said it has no connection to the ship.
The UK is the first known member of the coalition and already has two warships, the HMS Montrose and HMS Duncan, nearby escorting UK-flagged vessels. Both Germany and India have reportedly declined.
Last week, Vice Adm. Michael Gilday told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that the coalition "an 80 or 90 percent coalition effort and a much smaller US effort" with the US primarily providing intelligence services.
The testimony came as part of Gilday's confirmation to be President Donald Trump's chief of naval operations.
