JEREMY Hunt has warned there is a "great risk" of a drift to war in the Gulf following the attacks last week on two oil tankers.
Britain has joined the United States in blaming Iran for last Thursday's attacks; a claim which Tehran has strongly denied.
The Foreign Secretary said Britain was urging all sides in the dispute to "de-escalate" in order to avoid an armed conflict.
"This is the great risk of the situation that we are in. Both sides in this dispute think that the other side wouldn't want a war. We are urging all sides to de-escalate," he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.
READ MORE: Royal Navy set to deploy 100 men amid rising tensions as US points finger at Iran over attacks
"Having spoken to President Trump, I am absolutely clear that for America they want this to end in negotiations.
"Let's see Iran stop its destabilising activities in Lebanon through Hezbollah, in Yemen where they are firing missiles into Saudi Arabia, on the Gulf as we have seen. That is the long-term solution."
Mr Hunt defended his assertion that Iran was "almost certain" to blame for the attacks on the tankers.
"We have done our own intelligence assessment. We have got videos of what happened. We have seen evidence. We don't believe anyone else could have done this," he insisted.
Jeremy Corbyn has questioned the UK Government’s approach, tweeting: "Britain should act to ease tensions in the Gulf, not fuel a military escalation that began with US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement.
"Without credible evidence about the tanker attacks, the Government's rhetoric will only increase the threat of war."
In response, Mr Hunt accused the Labour leader of "virulent anti-Americanism".
He said: "For Jeremy Corbyn it's all America's fault. This is the same man by the way who refused to condemn Putin after the Salisbury Novichok attacks," he said.
"I'm afraid this shows that Labour is in the grip of virulent anti-Americanism that will be incredibly dangerous for our country if they ever took control," added the Foreign Secretary.
READ MORE: UK ambassador sought meeting with Iran’s Foreign Ministry amid oil tanker row
Meanwhile, Rob Macaire, Britain's ambassador to Iran, sought an urgent meeting with the country's Foreign Ministry after the UK broadly backed the US line in blaming Tehran for attacks on oil tankers.
Mr Macaire said his request was granted. He rejected reports that he was ordered by Iranian officials to explain Britain's position.
News website, Iran Front Page, claimed the UK ambassador had been summoned by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, whose Europe minister had reportedly "expressed Tehran's strong protest to the British Government's unacceptable anti-Iran stances".
But Mr Macaire tweeted in response: "Interesting. And news to me. I asked for an urgent meeting with the Foreign Ministry yesterday and it was granted. No 'summons'. Of course, if formally summoned I would always respond, as would all ambassadors."
Today, Saudi Arabia joined the US and UK in blaming Iran with the country's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman saying Riyadh "won't hesitate" to tackle any threats.
Tehran has strongly denied being behind the attack, which Mr Hunt said built on "a pattern of destabilising Iranian behaviour and pose a serious danger to the region".
READ MORE: War of words pours fuel on fire as Americans put Iran in their sights
The US has sought to back up its claims, releasing footage on Friday said to show an unexploded mine being removed from one of the tankers by Iranian special forces.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said "no other state or non-state actor could plausibly have been responsible" for the incident.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel