European Gulf security plan 'complementary' to US moves: Pentagon

Britain's plans for a European-led protection force for Gulf shipping lanes is "complementary" to plans by the United States to prevent "provocative actions" by Iran, new Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday.

"I think it's all complementary," Esper told reporters when asked about the initiative which London, Paris and Berlin have been working on since Tehran seized a British-flagged tanker in the Gulf's strategic Strait of Hormuz last week.

"There will be clearly coordination between us all. CENTCOM will be the coordinating authority," he added, referring to the US Central Command responsible for American forces in the region.

Esper, speaking to reporters for the first time since formally taking office late Tuesday after the US Senate confirmed his appointment, said such an effort would work "whether we do that as one big group, or as subgroups."

The two key things for Washington are to "maintain freedom of navigation" in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Gulf, and "deterring .