When asked if Iran had the capability to attack the UK, Streeting said: “I think we shouldn’t put too much stock in the sabre-rattling of Iran, and we certainly shouldn’t be intimidated by what the regime has said this week”.
He also repeated the UK’s position from the outset of the US war against Iran saying “we have not joined and will not join offensive US military action in Iran.
“That’s an area where we have not agreed with the United States, but when it comes to securing maritime freedom and free commercial shipping in the straight Hormuz, that’s where we are absolutely aligned”.
Streeting said he is to meet with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in the coming week after “kicking around” ideas for ways “to bring the countries together” and had been “delighted” to speak to Hegseth by phone already.
He also said that the UK is ready to lead a naval mission to help remove mines from the Strait of Hormuz “when the conditions are right”.
Securing safe shipping routes through the area was important because of the impact the crisis is having on energy prices and the cost of living, he added.
Streeting also dismissed a Russian warship’s recent live-firing exercise in the English Channel as “performative” but added it was a “reminder of the frankly unsafe and unprofessional way in which they have been conducting themselves”.
Branding the Channel incident “irresponsible”, Streeting said Russia posed a threat to UK security, adding that the public does not see “the enormous efforts that take place every day to counter Russian aggression”.
