Anxieties that Iran may further interfere with shipping passing through the Strait of Hormuz to exert pressure on the West over the US “economic attack” on its economy will not have eased following latest remarks from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on August 6 in which he talked about “a strait for a strait”.

Referring to events in July in which the UK seized an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar and Iran captured a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, Rouhani said on Iranian state television: “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.”

The UK has now linked up with the US to form a naval mission charged with escorting vessels through the strait, either individually or in groups. The move, also partly in response to clandestine limpet mine attacks that have damaged half a dozen tankers in recent months, stoked concerns that the standoff between Tehran and Washington is intensifying and could eventually turn into a military confrontation. On this point, Rouhani repeated an old warning, in which he said: "Peace with Iran is the mother of all peace… [and war with Iran is the mother of all wars".

Iran has repeatedly declined the US offer to enter talks on resolving differences with no pre-conditions. But Rouhani said the Islamic Republic feels that if the US “really wants to talk, before anything else it should lift all sanctions".

Approximately one-fifth of the world's oil traffic passes through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The US is subjecting Iran to a “maximum pressure” campaign led by swingeing sanctions aimed at strangling the Iranian economy, including by attempting to drive all of Iran’s lifeline oil exports off world markets. The aim is to force Tehran to the table to make big concessions on its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and support of militias in the Middle East who are variously enemies of Israel and Arab allies of the US including Saudi Arabia and the UAE.