The United States’ NATO allies said on Monday they would not get involved in President Donald Trump’s plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, further ratcheting up tensions within the increasingly fragile alliance. Trump said the U.S. military would work with other countries to block all maritime traffic in the waterway, after weekend talks failed to reach an agreement to end the six-week conflict with Iran. The U.S. military later specified that the blockade, due to start at 1400 GMT on Monday, would only apply to ships going to or from Iranian ports.
“The Blockade will begin shortly. Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.
But NATO allies including Britain and France said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, saying instead that it was vital to open the waterway through which one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes, which Iran has effectively closed since the conflict began on February 28. Their refusal to participate is yet another point of friction with Trump, who has threatened to withdraw from the military alliance and is weighing pulling some U.S. troops from Europe after several countries resisted supporting the U.S. campaign against Iran by denying U.S. military planes use of their airspace.
CONSIDERABLE PRESSURE
“We’re not supporting the blockade,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the BBC.
“My decision has been very clearly that whatever the pressure, and there’s been some considerable pressure, we’re not getting dragged into the war,” he said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told European governments that Trump wants concrete commitments in the near future to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, diplomats told Reuters last week.
NATO could play a role in the strait if its 32 members could agree on the formation of a mission, Rutte said on April 9.
Several European countries have said they’re willing to help in the strait but only once there is a durable end to hostilities and an agreement with Iran that their ships will not be attacked.
France will organise a conference with Britain and other countries to create a multinational mission to restore navigation in the strait, French President Emmanuel Macron said on X on Monday.
“This strictly defensive mission, distinct from the belligerents, will be deployed as soon as the situation allows,” Macron said.
Britain is working on ways to reduce insurance premiums for ships passing through the strait once the fighting has stopped, according to a senior European official.
The Strait of Hormuz should be reopened by diplomacy, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday, adding that creating an international force to oversee it would be complicated as he called for NATO to reset its ties with Trump at a summit in Ankara in July.
(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti, John Irish and Richard Lough; writing by Charlie Devereux Editing by Keith Weir)