Negotiations on naval convoys to safely reopen the Strait of Hormuz should include Tehran, French officials said on Friday, as the country leads international efforts to restore safe passage.
“We cannot imagine this [happening] without having discussed it with Iran. It is a prerequisite for everything else,” said Guillaume Vernet, a spokesman for the French military.
Mr Vernet did not confirm earlier reports that France is involved alongside Italy in talks with Iran in a bid to negotiate safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
Traffic through the strategic waterway has ground to a halt, causing oil prices to soar, after Iran attacked 16 ships since the US-Israeli strikes against the regime began two weeks ago. Greenpeace estimates that 85 crude tankers are laden and stuck in the Arabian Gulf, after Tehran said it would not allow a drop of oil to leave the region.
The strait is about 40 kilometres wide at its narrowest point. In normal times, roughly one fifth of the world's oil transits through Hormuz.
French President Emmanuel Macron has sought diplomatic talks with international partners, including India, to reopen the Strait. The French lobbying is premised on a ceasefire being reached between Iran, the US and Israel. An Italian official on Friday denied a newspaper report of the country's involvement with France in talks with Tehran about reopening the Strait.
Joint mission
Should a mission be set up, it would like be the result of the joint efforts of several countries, Mr Vernet said, responding to a question from The National at the French army's headquarters in Paris. “It will be a joint mission of an international nature,” he added, without specifying which countries would be involved.
Mr Macron spoke last week to Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian. He stressed that Tehran “needs to guarantee freedom of navigation to put an end to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz”, the French President's office said.
Iran has not formally closed the Strait but a message attributed to new supreme leader Ayatollah Motjtaba Khamenei on Thursday said the move will put pressure Washington to end the war and the status quo should not change.
The most likely scenario for restored voyages would be that international frigates escort ships in a rolling convoy from the coast of Oman into the main channels of the Gulf.
The question mark over Iran is matched by an apparent lack of involvement from Washington.
American support for the operation to move the 1,000 ocean-going tankers and cargo vessels would also be vital.
With Mr Macron calling for a European lead for a “purely escort mission”, questions abound over how this would fit with the US presence in the region.
The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which is stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean to help protect Cyprus from Iranian drones, has no contact with US aircraft carriers sent to the Middle East, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R Ford.
No US commitment
“Our operations are completely separate, decoupled, and currently unco-ordinated. We don't have the same objectives or even the same mission,” Rear Admiral Thibault Haudos de Possesse told reporters, speaking from the Charles de Gaulle. There are no plans for the aircraft carrier to be sent to the Strait of Hormuz.
Asked if US warships would help the tankers transit the strait, US President Donald Trump told Fox News on Friday that “we would do it if we needed to” but did not fully commit, stating “we're going to see what happens”.
Other European leaders have said they are unlikely to support the French initiative. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated there was no reason for his country's participation in the military protection of merchant ships. “Germany is not part of this war and we do not want to become part of it,” he said during a visit to Norway. “There is therefore no reason to consider a military safeguarding of the sea lanes.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store distanced himself from the plans alongside the German chancellor.
Disunited Europe
Naval expert Nick Childs, of the IISS think tank, said that having a US-European armada going through the strait is “exactly what the Iranians would like, to draw them in closer than the allies would prefer”. On top of that “it would be a real struggle getting a unified European convoy,” he added. “It would be a major operation and would divert a lot of capabilities.”
Former Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe also highlighted that the mission would not be viable without American support as the US has eight destroyers in the area.
“The Americans, if they wanted, could do this tomorrow, but the Europeans couldn't do anything without the Americans and Europe's not doing any of this on its own. If they did, it would be absolute insanity and they'll get whacked as the whole of the Gulf is in the Iranian missile envelope.”
He added that even if Europe did commit to convoys, it would take at least eight or nine days to sail from Suez into the Gulf.
No minesweepers
A key concern expressed by experts is the relative ease with which the Iranians could shut the waters long-term with a mining operation, particularly with a dearth of minesweepers in western navies.
The Royal Navy, which Mr Childs said once had a mine countermeasures operation that was “a jewel in the crown of capability in the Gulf for decades”, withdrew its last minesweeper only days before the war began.
“All ours are gone,” said Mr Sharpe, who commanded warships in the Gulf, and all Britain had now was an “autonomous drone capability, which isn't ready”.
Even Iran using a few dhows to drop old-fashioned contact mines into the water would cause chaos, said Mr Childs.
If there was a “heavy mining scenario” conducted by Iran “then all bets are off, and you've got a month's worth of clearing to do,” Mr Sharpe added.
Despite Mr Macron’s commitment to commence an initiative, aside from the European divisions, there appears no real practical means to resolve a crisis that could yet severely impact the global economy.
