The EU is willing to help the US, Israel and Iran put an end to the escalating conflict in the Middle East "so everybody saves face", the bloc's foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday, as Europe insists that diplomacy is the only way forward.
The bloc's 27 foreign ministers gathered in Brussels this week and overwhelmingly pushed back against calls by US President Donald Trump to send frigates to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for the global oil trade that has been shut by Iran.
"We are willing to help also diplomatically to bring the parties together to really stop this war," Ms Kallas told Reuters. "We have been consulting with regional countries like the Gulf countries, Jordan and Egypt [about] whether we could also bring forward proposals for Iran, Israel and the US to get out of this situation so that everybody saves face.”
No appetite for war
A two-year-old EU defensive naval mission in the Bab Al Mandeb strait, an operation to deter Houthi attacks, is to be reinforced with more ships, but there is no appetite to extend its mandate to Hormuz.
European states were not consulted by the US before it joined Israel in launching strikes on Iran on February 28. They want to avoid being sucked into the conflict, but remain highly critical of Iran, which they consider responsible for the regional escalation. The Netherlands has put forward a proposal to impose sanctions on states, such as Iran, that block international shipping.
"Nobody is ready to put their people in harm's way in the Strait of Hormuz," Ms Kallas said. "We have to find ... diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don't have a ... food crisis, fertilisers crisis, energy crisis in the world."
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was the first European leader to suggest a naval mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, on Tuesday said Paris would not take part in operations amid regional hostilities.
"We are not party to the conflict and, therefore, France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context," Mr Macron said at the start of a cabinet meeting to discuss the conflict.
France is among a coalition, including non-EU states, working to find a negotiated solution with Iran to stop attacking ships using the strait.
India, which on Monday secured the transit of two of its ships carrying liquefied petroleum gas, is viewed as a key potential partner, but no co-ordinated measures have emerged yet from talks. The latest reports suggest only 20 tankers have passed through the narrow waterway since the war began.
'Rerouting'
The UK is also supporting international diplomatic efforts. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament on Tuesday that the global community needs to move swiftly to tackle Iran’s efforts to “hijack the global economy". She added that several nations "need to be involved” in plans to get ships moving through the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.
Ms Cooper told MPs that discussions will continue with international partners “about what is credible and feasible so commercial shipping can return as soon as possible as the conflict subsides” and the strait is reopened.
“We want to see the swiftest possible resolution of this crisis that brings security and stability back to the region, that stops Iran's threats to its neighbours and their efforts to hijack the global economy,” she told MPs. “These events in the Middle East have consequences around the world.”
She was asked by former security minister Tom Tugendhat if there were plans to find alternative routes, especially to get fertiliser to farmers.
Ms Cooper said she met Saudi Arabia's energy and transport ministers during a visit to the kingdom last week and they looked at “rerouting on different commercial routes and to ensure that different supply chains can keep moving”.
She added that fertiliser was “hugely significant for a lot of different areas” and that an international effort was also under way to look at different routes.
Ms Cooper also addressed the situation in Lebanon, which is also facing Israeli strikes. She said the country was on the "precipice of a widening conflict that risks disastrous humanitarian consequences”.
