France is sending a dozen naval vessels into the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and possibly the Strait of Hormuz in support of regional allies.
President Emmanuel Macron revealed the build-up of an international defensive mission to escort commercial ships on Monday.
“We are in the process of setting up a purely defensive, purely escort mission, which must be prepared together with both European and non-European states,” Mr Macron said after meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The mission's purpose will be “to allow, as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict has ended, the escort of container ships and tankers to gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Macron said.
“This is essential for international trade, but also for the flow of gas and oil, which must be able to leave this region again,” he added. Some 20 per cent of the world's oil supply uses the strait. Traffic has ground to a halt amid Iranian threats to attack ships although it remains open.
The meeting in Paphos, on the southern tip of Cyprus, was primarily a show of solidarity with the country after an Iranian-made drone hit the island last Monday. “When Cyprus is attacked, then Europe is attacked,” Mr Macron said. Cyprus's air force demonstrated a weapon system at Paphos Military Base in front of the three leaders.
'Unprecedented' mobilisation
France, Greece, Italy and Spain have sent frigates to Cyprus. Athens also flew in four F-16s to help to defend the island, while France rerouted its aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle from the North Atlantic Ocean to the Eastern Mediterranean. Rome and Paris have also sent air-defence systems to Gulf states.
Beyond what France has already deployed to Cyprus and the Gulf in the past week, Mr Macron said that a further eight frigates and two helicopter carriers would be operating between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
This includes two frigates Mr Macron said would take part in a European naval mission named Aspides, that was launched in 2023 to protect ships from Houthi attacks in the Bab Al Mandeb.
“This mobilisation of our navy is unprecedented,” Mr Macron said, and “demonstrates France's willingness to contribute to the de-escalation of tensions within our borders, to the security of our partners, and to the free navigation and maritime security to which we wish to contribute".
There will be no security in the Strait of Hormuz during war, Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, declared in response to Mr Macron.
The Iranian official said security in the waterway could not be secured "amid the flames of a war ignited by the US and Israel" in the region, "especially not by sides that supported this war".
UK delay
By contrast the UK is still struggling to get any warships to the region, with suggestions one of its aircraft carriers was being deployed dismissed by Whitehall sources.
It had been reported that HMS Prince of Wales was put on five days readiness to head to the Mediterranean but sources said on Monday it was more likely to head to the Arctic to take part in long-planned Nato exercises.
The National asked if the reason for the carrier not deploying to the conflict was due to the Royal Navy’s lack of Type-45 air defence destroyers, Type-23 frigate and a hunter-killer submarine to escort the £3 billion ($4 billion) warship.
“You will have to ask the Ministry of Defence,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said.
He also had to field journalists' questions on when the Type-45 destroyer HMS Dragon will leave port after it was announced it would provide protection for Cyprus a week ago.
Urgent repairs and rearming the ship for air defence have caused significant delays – and questions over the British government’s lack of preparation – meaning she may not arrive in Cyprus for another two weeks.
'European solidarity'
Mr Mitsotakis said he would “add his voice” to reinforce Aspides, which has headquarters in Greece. “There are few of us who are participating, but here too we will need to demonstrate our European solidarity more practically,” he said.
European states have been largely sidelined as the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran has escalated, hitting Gulf Arab states and dragging Lebanon into the line of fire after Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel.
But with shipping lanes in the Middle East affected and the price of oil heading well above $100 a barrel, European powers are grappling with the issue of how to defend their interests.
France, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, convened an emergency meeting of finance ministers in Brussels. They discussed the possibility of releasing oil reserves to stabilise markets, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said, but no decision was taken.
Speaking from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, Mr Macron said G7 states were "moving towards technical measures of this kind."
"We don't know how things will develop. There's a lot of uncertainty that comes with such a conflict," Mr Macron said.
The UK also fears economic damage the longer the war in the Middle East continues, Mr Starmer said. He said the economy is resilient and well placed to absorb the “likely impact” on households and businesses.
“I think that the longer this goes on, the more likely the potential for an impact of our economy, impact into the lives and households of everybody and every business,” the UK Prime Minister told a community meeting in London.
Mr Starmer also spoke of the UK's work to support countries under attack from Iran. “Intelligence is being shared every day in the region,” he said. “We have our military personnel and US military personnel in the same places, in the same bases, and both the US and the UK are working together and protecting those bases.”
He said that the UK shared the concerns of the region over the dangers of further escalation. “We do need to find a way to de-escalate the situation and that’s what a lot of our discussions are about,” he said.
