The Iran crisis leaves the UK in a precarious position, stuck between the EU and Trump

The Foreign Office is starting to look more like a department in Donald Trump’s administration – with top officials having resigned, been suspended or been busy trying to become prime minister. All of which is not very helpful in the middle of a major crisis with Iran.

The secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt, is unsure if he will have a job once he probably loses to Boris Johnson in the PM race; Alan Duncan – who deals with Europe and the Americas – has resigned as he doesn’t want to be in a Johnson government; and another high-ranking official, Mark Field, is currently suspended while an investigation takes place into his grabbing of a Greenpeace activist at an event.

With the seizing of the Stena Impero, Hunt and his office have fallen into the trap of trying to do too much with too little. Tehran had threatened to retaliate after the royal marines helped seize the Iranian tanker Grace 1 off the coast of Gibraltar for allegedly busting EU sanctions against Syria. The incident has exposed the small number of UK ships currently operational that could prevent such action, with ministers also being accused of taking their eye of the ball due to the all-encompassing issue of Brexit.

Some have suspected the US pushed the UK into taking action to help Washington up the pressure on Tehran, although officials have denied that. However, if the government was expecting help from Washington over the Stena Impero, it was given a rude awakening by the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, yesterday. He said on Fox News, President Trump’s favourite news network, that the UK must take care of its own ships. Ouch.

Having been given short shrift by Pompeo, Hunt told parliament that Britain will seek to put together a European-led maritime protection mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But the UK is firmly in choppy waters – having been left stuck between US and EU policy on Iran. Washington wants nothing but pressure to be applied, and tensions have escalated since Trump pulled the US out of the international nuclear deal with Tehran. The EU has been desperately trying to keep the deal together, with the UK (also not keen to see the agreement collapse) trying a more soft diplomatic approach to keep Iran at the table.

Keeping up with the high-wire balancing act of ensuring both sides are happy has left Britain exposed. Brexiteers have said the government will be able to steer its own path in the world after EU withdrawal, but the lack of a definitive end to that process has meant London is scared of alienating a massive trading partner in the US, while also trying to keep up appearances as a global policing power to the EU.

Easier said than done – with the Foreign Office gaps the icing on the cake of years of military cuts and slow-moving, long-term projects. Britain is facing embarrassment on the world stage due to a lack of ships, leadership and strategy. Officials may be doing all they can to help return the Stena Impero and its crew – but they are doing it in the type of messy way that has become the hallmark of the Trump presidency. The new prime minister has a big job on his hands.