Hamish de Bretton Gordon

But

The inference that you would do it in contact, in other words, under fire to clear the straits, I think that most people have sort of discarded that because it is so easy for Iran with its little fast attack boats and firing missiles from the coast to hit Royal Naval or any Navy ships that would go into the area.

There is...

I'm not a naval expert, but naval experts tell me it'd be virtually impossible to completely secure the Straits with just military power.

So a long answer to your question, Claire, no, I don't think there's a lot of appetite to help the Americans in that endeavour.

Well, I suppose that is the multi-million dollar question that Trump is hoping that Tehran's thinking about.

In a way, they have put the potential boots on the ground in the region.

82nd Airborne Division and the Marine Expeditionary Force is in the area, and those are the people who would go on the far side, if you like, the enemy bank.

But, you know, that is fraught with danger.

And this sort of thing, certainly when the US has done these sort of things in the past, people my age will remember the attempt to recover hostages in the 70s from Iran from the US embassy went horrifically wrong.

This is fraught with a lot of danger, but I suppose it makes sense for the Pentagon to sort of flex this particular muscle in the hope that the Iranian regime will start to discuss.

But to go down that route, I think, would be hugely challenging.