“Both sides in this dispute think that the other side wouldn’t want a war”

Jeremy Hunt

His comments follow suspected attacks on oil tankers last week in the region which Washington has blamed on Iran

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned of the “great risk” of a drift to war with Iran following the incident last week in the Gulf.

The attacks caused oil prices to soar amid heightened fears of a conflict in the region causing major disruption to world supplies.

US warships were on the scene to assist the two tankers after the Trump dispatched a carrier strike group to the region.

Hunt, who is in the running to replace Theresa May as Prime Minister, said Britain was urging all sides in the dispute to “de-escalate” in order to avoid a slide into armed conflict.

“This is the great risk of the situation that we are in. Both sides in this dispute think that the other side wouldn’t want a war. We are urging all sides to de-escalate,” the Tory leadership hopeful told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“Having spoken to President Trump, I am absolutely clear that for America they want this to end in negotiations.

“Let’s see Iran stop its destabilising activities in Lebanon through Hezbollah, in Yemen where they are firing missiles into Saudi Arabia, on the Gulf as we have seen. That is the long-term solution.”

The Americans have accused Iran of using limpet mines to target the tankers, pointing to video footage said to show Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops removing an unexploded mine from one of the vessels.

In recent weeks, the US has sent an aircraft carrier strike group and other military assets to the region in what the military says is defensive posturing aimed at Iranian deterrence.

Britain’s ambassador to Tehran Rob Macaire, meanwhile, has denied Iranian media reports that he had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry in protest at the UK’s “unacceptable anti-Iran stances”.

Macaire said he had sought the meeting himself.

“Interesting. And news to me,” he tweeted, “I asked for an urgent meeting with the Foreign Ministry yesterday and it was granted. No ‘summons’. Of course if formally summoned I would always respond, as would all ambassadors.”

In his interview, Hunt defended the Foreign Office’s assertion that Iran was “almost certain” to blame for the attacks on the tankers despite no concrete evidence being presented.

“We have done our own intelligence assessment. We have got videos of what happened. We have seen evidence. We don’t believe anyone else could have done this,” he said.

Fears of war between Iran and the USA have increased in recent months.

The relationship between the two countries thawed under former President Barack Obama who signed a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015.

This came after years of tensions that saw Western powers claim that Iranwas trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran, though, claimed its nuclear programme was peaceful and needed to help produce electricity for its 80 million population..

Under the nuclear treaty Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to examine its facilities and limit its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions.

The UK, US, France, China, Russia and Germany all signed the treaty but last year Trump withdrew America from the landmark agreement and reimposed tough economic sanctions.

There has been a marked increase in US-Iranian tensions since Trump’s decision to try to cut off all of Iran’s oil exports and to designate its Revolutionary Guards as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Trump believes the economic pressure will force Tehran to accept more stringent limitations on its nuclear and missile programs as well as on its support for proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

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