Iran’s Defense Minister Amir Hatami discussed the US-proposed coalition to monitor the Persian Gulf region in a phone conversation with defense officials from Kuwait, Qatar and Oman. Hatami said, “We are committed to the security of the Persian Gulf.” 

Hatami continued, “The Islamic Republic has spared no action in protecting navigation in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman.” He added, “Regional security is a common interest of Iran and other neighbors in the Persian Gulf and therefore we believe security should be guaranteed by regional countries and regional countries should enter constructive talks in this field.”

Hatami argued, “America is the prime agent of instability in the region,” and “The military coalition America pursues with the excuse of shipping security will result in increasing instability.” 

The United Kingdom recently announced that it would join the US mission to protect oil tankers in the Persian Gulf after Iran seized three tankers in recent months, one of them its own. Iran’s seizure of the British tanker came after the UK seized an Iranian tanker off of the coast of Gibraltar. Iran has denied taking the British tanker in retaliation but President Hassan Rouhani recently remarked at a cabinet meeting, “A strait for a strait. It can’t be that the Strait of Hormuz is free for you and the Strait of Gibraltar is not free for us.”