Boris Johnson warned: pay attention to the Iranian crisis or the risk of war | News from the world

Boris Johnson will be hit by a major international crisis in his early days as prime minister, military figures and senior military officials warned him after Iran seized a British-flagged oil tanker in a move which has propelled tensions in the Gulf to new heights.

Johnson, who is expected to win Theresa May's run for success and become the new prime minister on Wednesday, has been kept abad of Saturday's rival for top job, Jeremy Hunt. should be reappointed to his cabinet as Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

The former first lord of the sea, Admiral Lord West, writing in the Observer, says that the British government should have done more to protect British ships in the Gulf in recent days and suggests that those responsible for these decisions were distracted by the race at number 10.

Under a new Prime Minister, the government must now focus on the crisis or risk sinking into war.

"This crisis has developed while the eyes of our political party were focused on the election of a new prime minister," said West. "Whoever wins will face a major international crisis as soon as he is in office. It can not be ignored because of Brexit. He adds: "There are very real risks of miscalculation or reckless action leading up to war. "

Alistair Burt, former Foreign Minister and Middle East official, wrote on theguardian.com that the new prime minister already had enough problems to face, but now has "a fully formed international crisis in Iran".

On Saturday, Hunt summoned Tehran's top diplomat to London and asked British ships to temporarily avoid the Strait of Ormuz, after the Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized the British-flagged tanker off the coast of Iran. coastlines of the country and took him to one of his main military ports on Friday.

The Foreign Secretary said he had spoken to his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to express his "extreme disappointment" at Iran's actions, and pledged to protect British ships during the crisis. On Saturday night, Hunt insisted that the oil tanker, Stena Impero, had been arrested in Omani waters, "in flagrant violation of international law," and condemned the operation as "totally and absolutely unacceptable."

"This raises very serious questions about the safety of UK and even international shipping in the Strait of Ormuz," he said.

Hunt had promised a firm answer if the tanker was not released, but had said the government was not considering military action.

Government sources said Iran's timing, just before a change of Prime Minister, meant that it was almost certain that Hunt would remain Foreign Secretary if, as expected, Johnson was declared the winner. the leadership race of the conservative party on Tuesday.

A former minister said that it would be "unthinkable" for a new foreign secretary to be appointed at that time.

However, doubts remained in Whitehall as to the ability of Johnson and his new team to handle the crisis. Johnson was sharply criticized when, as Foreign Secretary, he made false remarks about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the Iranian-British woman detained in Iran, who, according to her family, has made her worse.

Former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the timing was dangerous: "This is a crucial test for the new Prime Minister who will put him and his team to the test.

The government's emergency committee, Cobra, met on Saturday afternoon to discuss the crisis – the second meeting of this type in less than 24 hours. It is understood that even though he should not be informed, he has not done so yet, but Hunt has kept abad of the changing situation.

The Iranian chargé d'affaires, the country's top diplomat in London, was also summoned to the Foreign Office. Iran's capture of the oil tanker and its 23 crew members comes two weeks after Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker, the Grace 1, located in Gibraltar, suspected of shipping oil to Syria in violation of an EU embargo, and just hours after the announcement by the Gibraltar authorities they would extend custody of the ship.

The owners of Stena Impero said that the tanker had been taken to Bandar Abbas, one of the main Iranian military bases, and carried "23 sailors of Indian, Russian, Latvian and Filipino nationality". The crew would have been healthy Saturday night.

The details of what happened Friday afternoon remained unclear. The official Iranian news agency said the vessel was seized after hitting a fishing boat. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Guards said he was escorted by a British military ship at the time, which was trying to prevent Iran from diverting the tanker to its shores.

Secretary of Defense Penny Mordaunt said that a Royal Navy frigate was one hour away from the scene when Iranian forces took control of Stena Impero. The tanker was in Omani waters at the time, she told Sky News. The shipowners stated that the ship was in international waters and complied with all laws and regulations.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the tanker has now arrived in Bandar Abbas. Britain should exclude the use of force. "This is an important Iranian military port and I think that any military option will therefore be extremely misguided," he told BBC Radio 4. Today & # 39; hui program.

On Saturday, Iran seemed to explicitly tie its gesture to the seizure of Grace 1, which Tehran had denounced as a piracy on the orders of Washington.

"The rule of reciprocal action is well known in international law," Fars Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the powerful Iranian Guardian Council, told the news agency.

The council rarely comments on state affairs, but it is perceived as reflecting the opinion of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Hunt rejected this interpretation, claiming that even if Tehran saw this as a "coup-de-coup" situation, "nothing could be further from the truth".

A second oil tanker flying the Liberian flag but operated by the British was also stopped for several hours by Iranian forces on Friday, before being allowed to continue its journey. Fars, a semi-official Iranian news agency, said it had received notice to comply with environmental regulations.

About one-fifth of the world's oil must pbad through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's busiest shipping lane for crude oil tankers, and less than 40 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. Tensions in the Gulf had already affected the oil trade, and Friday's oil seizures caused prices to soar.