Diplomatic pressure on Tehran continues to mount in wake of EU oil embargo
Twenty-four hours after the EU agreed its oil embargo, ministers were attempting to drum home the message to Tehran today - raising the possibility of military action on the one hand, while insisting that sanctions were designed to force Iran to the negotiating table.
Mixed messages?
Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, was asked about what the UK might do should Iran continue along its current path. Could more British resources be sent? Yes they could, he said.
"The UK has a contingent capability to reinforce that presence should at any time it be considered necessary to do so."
Those contingency plans have been revisited, as the Guardian reported last November, amid concern that military action might become necessary, and that it might be needed sooner rather than later.
Hammond was speaking just a day after a flotilla of warships, including the Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll, sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, the busy shipping pinch point that is so vital for the transport of oil.
It was a fairly blunt piece of choreography, designed, presumably, to underline to the Iranians that the threat of a military response is genuine.
A joint statement from David Cameron, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, continued to press the message, warning that Iran was on a "path the threatens the peace and security of all".
"Our message is clear. We have no quarrel with the Iranian people, but the Iranian leadership has failed to restore international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme."
The foreign secretary William Hague, meanwhile, insisted the sanctions were designed to prevent war. And he said the west wasn't planning to take military action in the Gulf.
Which isn't completely true. They might not want a conflict (at all, from what I can gather), but there has certainly been contingency planning for the possibility.
"This is not a set of actions designed to lead to any conflict but to lead us away from any conflict by increasing the pressure for a peaceful settlement of these disputes. We have many contingency plans for many contingencies, including as the Defence Secretary said at our press conference this morning, for sending any further naval forces to that area. But we are not planning to take military action in the Gulf. We call on Iran to return to the negotiations which are at all times available to it."