On Thursday, a British-flagged tanker transited the Strait of Hormuz under naval escort, while another vessel off the coast of Saudi Arabia delayed crude-loading and appeared to await an escort, according to London-based cargo tracker Kpler. The unusual activity in the Persian Gulf followed an incident Wednesday, when three Iranian vessels tried to block the passage of a BP PLC-run oil tanker and were stopped from doing so by British warship HMS Montrose. An Iranian official had earlier called for the capture of British vessels after the Royal Navy seized a tanker laden with Iranian oil allegedly bound for Syria off the coast of Gibraltar last week. A standoff between Iran and the West has been escalating since the Trump administration pulled out of a 2015 pact that sought to contain Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Oil tankers, pumping stations and pipelines in and around the Persian Gulf have been attacked […]