Britain and its allies today warned Iran it could be hit by fresh sanctions over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper chaired a meeting of more than 40 countries – although with no US representation – to discuss how to reopen the vital sea channel.
In a statement following Thursday’s virtual meeting, Ms Cooper said there was a ‘determination’ among nations to get ships sailing again through the waterway.
‘Iran is trying to hold the global economy hostage in the Strait of Hormuz. They must not prevail,’ the Foreign Secretary added.
‘To that effect, partners today called for the immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait.’
Thursday’s talks included discussions on ‘co-ordinated economic and political measures, such as sanctions, to bear down on Iran if the Strait remains closed’.
Ms Cooper said allies also spoke about how to ‘increase international diplomatic pressure, including through the UN’ to send ‘clear’ messages to Tehran.
It came as European powers dismissed Donald Trump’s ‘unrealistic’ demands after he told them to unblock the Strait by force.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper chaired a meeting of more than 40 countries – although with no US representation – to discuss how to reopen the vital sea channel.
In a statement following Thursday’s vitrual meeting, Ms Cooper said there was a ‘determination’ among nations to get ships sailing again through the waterway
Thursday’s talks included discussions on ‘co-ordinated economic and political measures, such as sanctions, to bear down on Iran if the Strait remains closed’
Emmanuel Macron said the US President had to get ‘serious’, suggesting that a period of silence from the White House would be welcome.
Mr Trump used a speech overnight to order other countries to ‘take care of’ the Strait – through which around a fifth of the world’s oil flows – because they are the ones who need supplies.
At other times the US President, who is overseeing an increasingly-disastrous military operataion against Tehran, has threatened to ‘obliterate’ Iran if they do not reopen the waterway.
The channel has been effectively blockaded by Iran since the US and Israel launched the war.
It is almost impossible to control without having forces on Iranian territory, because it is so narrow.
Although America is a huge oil producer, it is still exposed to global prices and would suffer from a looming worldwide downturn.
Speaking during a visit to South Korea today, Mr Macron said: ‘There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States.
‘I say sometimes because it has varied, it is never the option we have chosen and we consider it unrealistic.’
Mr Macron said such an operation would be exposed to ‘coastal threats’ from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard ‘who possess significant resources as well as ballistic missiles’.
Calling for a ceasefire and return to negotiations, the French President added: ‘This can only be done in concert with Iran.’
Mr Macron swiped at the wildly swinging positions coming from Mr Trump. ‘You have to be serious. When you want to be serious, you don’t say the opposite every day of what you said the day before. And perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day,’ he said.
He also voiced anger at Mr Trump’s jokes about an incident where his wife pushed him in the face, which was caught on camera. The comments were ‘neither elegant nor up to standard’ and did not ‘merit a response’, Mr Macron said.
Emmanuel Macron said the US President had to get ‘serious’, suggesting that a period of silence from the White House would be welcome
A tanker near the Strait of Hormuz last month. The crucial channel remains effectively shut after the US and Israel launched the war on Iran
In the virtual call with foreign ministers earlier, Ms Cooper said: ‘In today’s meeting, we are focusing on the diplomatic and international planning measures, including collective mobilisation of our full range of diplomatic and economic tools and pressures, reassurance work with industry, insurers and energy markets, and also action to guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and effective coordination that we need across the world to enable a safe and sustained opening of the strait.’
She hit out at Tehran after ‘over 25 attacks on vessels in the strait, and there are some 20,000 trapped seafarers on some 2,000 trapped ships’.
Ms Cooper said: ‘Iranian recklessness towards countries who were never involved in this conflict… is not just hitting mortgage rates and petrol prices and the cost of living here in the UK and in many different countries across the world, it is hitting our global economic security.’
Following the UK-led meeting, military planners will consider how to make the strait ‘accessible and safe’ after the fighting has stopped.
But that is not expected to involve the deployment of Royal Navy warships to police the waterway.
Keir Starmer has been attempting to reassure anxious Brits that the Government has a plan to deal with the looming consequences of surging oil and gas prices.
Fertiliser and aluminium supplies are also being crippled by the closure of the Strait, with knock-on impacts on food and a bewildering variety of goods.
Mr Trump has threatened to pull the US out of Nato as he vented fury at the UK, France and other allies for not joining his attacks on Iran.
It is far from clear he can do that, with a law having been passed in 2023 dictating that the Senate would need to approve such a move.
He did not mention the future of the military alliance in his address to the American people last night – which sent Brent Crude prices rocketing again.
Mr Trump said: ‘The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily.
‘We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.
‘So to those countries that can’t get fuel, many of which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, we had to do it ourselves.’
The talks come after Donald Trump again demanded other nations take responsibility for the crucial channel, through which around a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes
Keir Starmer has been attempting to reassure anxious Britons that the Government has a plan to deal with the looming consequences of surging oil and gas prices
He continued: ‘I have a suggestion. Number one, buy oil from the United States of America. We have plenty. We have so much, and number two, build up some delayed courage. Should have done it before. Should have done it with us as we asked, go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves.
‘Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy.
‘And in any event. When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally.
‘It’ll just open up naturally. They’re going to want to be able to sell oil, because that’s all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down.’
Nigel Farage insisted that Mr Trump ‘is not going to leave Nato’.
At a press conference, he argued that the US president had done the alliance a favour by forcing states to contribute more to defence.
‘Without America, we are defenceless,’ the Reform leader said.
Nato was founded in 1949, with the signing of the Washington Treaty in the US capital, to counter the risk of an attack by the Soviet Union and has been the cornerstone of the security of the West.
Its membership has grown to 32 nations including European countries, the US and Canada.
Under Article 5 of the treaty each member nation pledges that an armed attack against one ‘shall be considered an attack against them all.’
Nato has invoked Article 5 only once, the day after America was attacked on 9/11. It led the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan until 2014.