London (AFP) – Britain will on Thursday hold a virtual meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which has been crippled by the Middle East war. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the meeting earlier Wednesday, while a UK official told AFP that the meeting would be virtual and held on Thursday. UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will host the discussions, Starmer told reporters during a Downing Street news conference.
The meeting will “assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and resume the movement of vital commodities,” he added. “Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” he stated. The discussions will include countries who recently signed a statement saying they were ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz,” said Starmer. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands are among those to have signed it.
Iran has virtually closed the vital strait since the US-Israeli strikes that started the war on February 28, causing global oil and gas prices to soar. A fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes through the strait in peacetime. “I do have to level with people on this. This (reopening) will not be easy,” Starmer said.
The UK leader also backed NATO following renewed criticism of the eight-decade-old alliance by US President Donald Trump. “NATO is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen, and it has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO,” Starmer said. Trump told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in an article published Wednesday that NATO was a “paper tiger.”
Asked whether he would reconsider US membership, he replied: “Oh yes, I would say (it’s) beyond reconsideration,” the paper reported. Last month, Trump told the Financial Times that it would be “very bad for the future of NATO” if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway. On Tuesday, he said that countries which had not joined the war but were struggling with fuel shortages should “go get your own oil” in the Strait of Hormuz, adding that the US would not help them.
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