U.S. Coalition Plan in Persian Gulf Fails

An F/A-18E Super Hornet aircraft launches from the flight deck 

the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the 

Persian Gulf on May 10, 2019. The aircraft carrier strike group 

is being deployed to the Persian Gulf to counter an alleged but 

still-unspecified threat from Iran.

DUBAI/PARIS -- The United States is struggling to win its allies’ support for an initiative to heighten surveillance of Middle East oil shipping lanes because of fears it will increase tension with Iran, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. 

Washington proposed on July 9 stepping up patrols around strategic waters off Iran and Yemen.

But with Washington’s allies reluctant to commit new weaponry or fighting forces, a senior Pentagon official told Reuters on Thursday that the United States’ aim was not to set up a military coalition but to shine a "flashlight” in the region.

Because of fears of confrontation, any involvement by Washington’s allies is likely be limited to naval personnel and equipment already in place - near the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and the Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea, two Persian Gulf sources and a British security source told Reuters.

"The Americans want to create an ‘alliance of the willing’ who confront future attacks,” a Western diplomat said. "Nobody wants to be on that confrontational course and part of a U.S. push against Iran.”

Addressing such concerns or possible misunderstandings, Kathryn Wheelbarger, one of the most senior policy officials at the Pentagon, told Reuters in an interview that the new initiative was "not about military confrontation.”

"This is not a coalition against Iran ... If you were militarily confronting Iran, this is not the construct that you would use,” she said. 

Under Washington’s proposal, the United States would provide coordinating ships and lead surveillance efforts while allies would patrol nearby waters and escort commercial vessels with their nation’s flags, according to Reuters. 

Iran has said foreign powers should leave securing shipping lanes to Tehran and other countries in the region.
France, which has a naval base in the United Arab Emirates, does not plan to escort ships and views the U.S. plan as counterproductive to easing tensions because Tehran would see it as anti-Iran, a French official said.

The British security source said it was not viable to escort every commercial vessel, a view shared by several other countries.

A senior Western official based in Beijing said there was "no way” China would join a maritime coalition. A South Korean official said Washington had yet to make any official request.

A decision by Japan to join such an initiative would be likely to inflame a divide in Japanese public opinion over sending troops abroad. Japan’s military has not fought overseas since World War Two.

"The Americans have been talking to anyone interested about setting something up, mainly looking to Asia as it’s of vital importance to their security of (oil) supply and asking for ships, but it’s gone a bit quiet,” a Persian Gulf official said.

India has deployed two ships in the Persian Gulf to protect Indian-flagged vessels since June 20. Other Asian oil importers are unlikely to have anything but a symbolic presence, such as the involvement of a liaison officer, officials and diplomats said.

"It’s just impossible. The Strait is already too crowded,” an Asian official said of an escort system in the Strait of Hormuz which is 21 miles (33 km) wide at its narrowest point.

A second Persian Gulf official said: "We’re not going to do anything like that, we are not going to do anything on our own.”

Tension has mounted since U.S. President Donald Trump last year quit a 2015 nuclear pact under which Iran agreed to curtail its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions.

Failure to secure support for the maritime initiative would be a blow to efforts by the United States, and its allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, to isolate Iran, Reuters said. 

Britain has a base in Oman and China has a military base in Djibouti, which lies off the Bab al-Mandab strait. Beijing has had to tread softly in the region because it has close energy ties with both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi support U.S. sanctions on Iran, which has many speed boats, portable anti-ship missile launchers and mines.

Persian Gulf states, which are big purchasers of Western arms, have invested more in air and land capabilities than in naval assets, and have little experience coordinating large naval missions.

The majority of vessels are small patrol craft and corvettes that would struggle on extended missions, said Tom Waldwyn, research associate for The Military Balance at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.