It’s becoming increasingly evident that Iran is laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the UK, as Iran’s new supreme leader used his first comments to the media to say the critical waterway should stay closed.
“The reports have become clearer and clearer,” UK Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters at Britain’s military headquarters in North London, “the Iranians may have started mining in the strait.”
That’s despite the fact that on Wednesday night in the US President Donald Trump said “we don’t think so” to reporters who asked whether Iran had mined the strait.
While the UK has some autonomous de-mining systems in the region and is discussing other options with allies, he added that the surest route to ensuring ships safe passage was for the war to end, in comments made shortly before Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said Tehran will look to open other fronts in the war if the US and Israel persist with their attacks.
“The straits are most likely to be quickly opened by a de-escalation of the conflict and greater stabilization and confidence in the region, and all those nations which want to see straits reopened being willing to work together,” Healey said.
The narrowness of the Strait of Hormuz — it is less than 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide at the thinnest point — makes the danger of sea mines more acute, as ships have less room to maneuver and greater odds of striking one of the weapons. The limited observable traffic through the strait since the start of the month has mostly been Iranian and Chinese-linked.
The US Navy does not have any dedicated minesweepers in the Gulf region, said Caitlin Talmadge of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It would instead use its Littoral Combat Ships, mid-sized, fast vessels designed to operate in shallow water, to send out helicopters and undersea drones for mine detection.
Iran’s anti-ship missiles have enough range to cover the entire strait, although it is not known how many are left after US and Israeli air strikes, and attacks on commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf.
That puts any mine-sweeping ships in danger, Talmadge said, because the US Navy ships will have to operate near the mined area.
“In circumstances of conflict, de-mining any waters is extremely difficult,” Healey added in his Thursday comments echoed by Talmadge.
“Mine clearance is a peacetime activity nearly impossible to do during a war,” she said. “It happens usually after the war, otherwise the ships and helicopters doing it are highly vulnerable. Iran has been preparing for this for years.”
Photograph: A tanker passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Photo credit: Fadel Senna/AFP
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