Edmonton Journal, 23 Jan 2011 – Britain, America and France de-livered a pointed message to Iran on Sunday, sending six warships led by an aircraft carrier through the sensitive waters of the Strait of Hormuz.

The deployment challenged Iranian threats to close the waterway and coincided with an escalation in the West’s confrontation with Iran over the country’s nuclear ambitions.

European Union foreign ministers are expected to announce an embargo on Iranian oil exports Monday, amounting to the most significant package of sanctions yet agreed. They are also likely to impose a partial freeze on assets held by the Iranian Central Bank in the EU. Tehran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation. Tankers carrying 17 million barrels of oil pass through the water-way every day, accounting for 35 per cent of the world’s seaborne crude shipments.

At its narrowest point, between Iran and Oman, the strait is only 34 kilometres wide.

Last month, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the commander of the Iranian navy, claimed that closing the strait would be “easy,” adding: “As Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water.”

But the USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier capable of deploying 90 aircraft, passed through the channel and entered the Gulf without incident on Sunday.

HMS Argyll, a Type 23 Royal Navy frigate, was one of the escort vessels making up the battle-group. A guided missile cruiser and two destroyers from the U.S. navy completed the flotilla, along with a warship from the French navy.

All three countries retain a permanent military presence in the Gulf, but a joint passage through the Strait of Hormuz by all their respective navies is highly unusual.

The flotilla will have passed within a few kilometres of the Iranian coast-line.

A western official denied this was a provocative move intended to increase the pressure on Iran. The goal was simply to “illustrate inter-national resolve” to guarantee free movement of shipping through a vital artery of the world economy, he said.