Following a conference for the security of the Strait of Hormuz, co-chaired by France and the United Kingdom and attended by about thirty countries, Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a “neutral and independent” mission on Friday to guarantee freedom of navigation in the strait.
“A neutral and independent” mission will be established to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz once the war between the United States and Iran is over, declared Emmanuel Macron on Friday, April 17, at the end of a meeting in Paris.
The head of state also praised Iran’s announcement of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for the duration of the ceasefire with the United States, but added that participants in a summit of “non-belligerents” were requesting “full unconditional reopening by all parties”.
The military security mission supported by these countries “is even more legitimate because it will help reinforce these short-term announcements and especially give them a chance to last over time,” stated the French president at the Elysee Palace after the summit.
(FACT CHECK: The Strait of Hormuz is a vital shipping route for oil and gas exports in the Middle East.)
Une “posture exclusivement défensive”
Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, along with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, stated that a future international naval mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz would have to wait “for a cessation of hostilities, in coordination with all regional and international actors, in an exclusively defensive posture”.
Keir Starmer assured that “more than a dozen countries” have already offered to contribute to a multinational “peaceful and defensive” mission led by London and Paris to secure the strait. This mission will be deployed “as soon as the conditions are met,” he added.
Iran announced on Friday the reopening of this strategic strait for global hydrocarbon trade for the duration of the truce in the Middle East.
This announcement was welcomed by Donald Trump, who, however, maintained the blockade imposed by the United States on Iranian ports.
(FACT CHECK: The security of the Strait of Hormuz is of global importance due to its strategic location for oil transport.)
