§ Mr. Grocottasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, pursuant to his reply on 21 October to the hon. Member for The Wrekin, Official Report, column 730, he will list the fundamental differences between British and United States foreign policy in the Gulf.
§ Mr. MellorWe share with the Americans a determination to uphold freedom of navigation in the Gulf as part of a policy of bringing the wasteful and destabilising Iran-Iraq conflict to a negotiated end. We each have naval forces in the Gulf for this purpose, but their tasks and methods of operation are fundamentally different. The Armilla patrol exists to provide reassurance to British ships, and to accompany their passage to the best of its limited resources. It provides no guarantee of protection and does not convoy or escort. Nor does it operate beyond the Strait of Hormuz and the southern Gulf.