The British and French Defense Ministers will co-chair, this Tuesday, May 12, a videoconference meeting with their counterparts from countries ready to contribute to a mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
The British and French Defense Ministers will co-chair a videoconference meeting on Tuesday with their counterparts from countries ready to contribute to a mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz, in order to discuss the “military contributions” of each, London announced on Sunday.
Tehran warned on Sunday of a “decisive and immediate response” from the army in the event of French and British deployment in the Strait of Hormuz, after the announcement by Paris and London of the sending of military buildings to the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron, however, assured Sunday evening that France had “never considered” a “deployment” in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Define their military contributions”
The forty countries involved “should take advantage of tomorrow’s meeting to discuss and define their military contributions to the defensive mission aimed at reopening and securing the Strait of Hormuz when conditions allow”, indicated the British Ministry of Defense in a press release.
In mid-April, several countries not directly involved in the conflict triggered on February 28 by the American-Israeli strikes on Iran said they were ready to set up a “neutral mission” in order to secure the Strait, during a conference co-chaired in Paris by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The objective is “to support and secure merchant ships which will transit the Gulf”, declared Emmanuel Macron, while Keir Starmer spoke of a “peaceful and defensive” force.
The United States and Iran, warring parties to the conflict, did not participate in its talks.
London has already announced the prepositioning “in the Middle East”, without further details, of a destroyer, the HMS Dragon, hitherto positioned in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“Soyons prêts à agir”
For its part, Paris announced on May 6 the dispatch of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Gulf. At Tuesday’s meeting, “our role will be to ensure that we don’t just talk, but are ready to act,” said John Healey, the British Defense Minister, who will co-chair the meeting with his French counterpart Catherine Vautrin.
Tehran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, strategic for maritime transport, particularly of hydrocarbons, has shaken the world economy, and some 1,500 ships and 20,000 crew members are stuck there.
The Strait has become a major focus of tensions between the United States and Iran, and sporadic clashes take place there despite the ceasefire in force since April 8 between the two countries.
Washington, for its part, has been blockading Iranian ports since April 13, while negotiations aimed at putting a lasting end to hostilities have stalled.
On Sunday, a transport ship was struck off the coast of Qatar, with Iran claiming that it “flew the American flag and belonged to the United States”, without explicitly claiming responsibility for the attack.
The United States and Gulf countries called on the UN Security Council on Thursday to demand that Iran stop “preventing” navigation in the strait. A draft resolution to this effect was submitted by Washington and Bahrain, but Russia (an ally of Tehran) indicated that it was ready to block the text.
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