Britain held a meeting of more than 40 US allies from Europe, the Middle East and Asia, in addition to Australia and Canada, to discuss plans to open the Strait of Hormuz.
The meeting was chaired by British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. A British government statement said that the meeting participants discussed increasing international diplomatic pressure to open the Strait of Hormuz (including through the United Nations), as well as coordinated economic and political measures and joint work with shipping operators and industry bodies.
father words According to Bloomberg sources, the international community has “made clear” that the United States needs to include the Strait of Hormuz issue in ceasefire negotiations with Iran. At the same time, the same meeting showed that the coalition of countries considers it necessary to begin preparations for the possible opening of the Strait without the participation of the United States, the agency wrote.
Source: Reuters NotesAlthough the meeting ended without specific agreements, it reached a consensus: Iran should not be able to impose fees on the passage of ships, and all countries should have the right to use the strait freely.
According to European diplomats, the formation of the coalition of countries is still at an early stage. The United Kingdom and France are playing a leading role in this matter. French Armed Forces spokesman Guillaume Vernet said that the operation will be multi-stage and will not begin until the fighting in the region stops.
The coalition’s military commanders will meet next week to discuss how to deploy their naval forces to patrol and clear the strait after the war. At the same time, most countries are not ready to consider opening the Strait by force: they do not consider this a realistic solution and believe that the crisis cannot be resolved without Iran’s consent, Bloomberg writes.
Before the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, up to a fifth of seaborne oil exports, as well as liquefied natural gas, passed through the Strait of Hormuz. In the early days of the war, Iran blocked the movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz, which became one of the main factors in the sharp rise in global energy prices.
Donald Trump said several times that European countries should be concerned with the issue of regulating the passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz. On April 2, he addressed the nation in which he declared that after the end of the war the strait would open “on its own” (because oil is “the only thing Iran has to rebuild”) and again called on countries receiving oil via this route to “control it and use it to their advantage.”