Britain said on Monday that it was joining a US-led maritime security mission in the Gulf to protect merchant vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.
Last month, Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a British tanker, Stena Impero, near the Strait of Hormuz for alleged marine violations after Britain seized an Iranian oil tanker near Gibraltar, accusing it of violating sanctions on Syria.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
"We look forward to working alongside the US and others to find an international solution to the problems in the Strait of Hormuz," Defense Minister Ben Wallace told reporters.
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Britain remained committed to working with Iran to maintain the 2015 nuclear deal that Tehran agreed to in return for an easing of sanctions.
A British security source said the focus of the new mission would be to protect the security of shipping, and that Britain would not be joining US sanctions against Iran.
Also on Monday, the Iraqi government said it had no connection to an oil tanker seized by Iran in the Gulf for smuggling fuel.
Iran had said earlier that the tanker was seized by its forces in the Gulf for allegedly smuggling fuel and was in fact an Iraqi ship, the official IRNA news agency reported.
A spokesman for the government department of the Iraqi state company for maritime transport said that the vessel was a "private tanker."
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps seized the Iraqi tanker near Farsi Island on Sunday and detained its seven crew, state media reported. IRGC commander Ramezan Zirahi was quoted as saying it was carrying 700,000 liters (185,000 gallons) of fuel.
In related news, Iran's atomic agency said on Monday that it would further reduce its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal in a month if European signatories to the deal failed to "uphold their commitments."
