UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was working with allies to produce a “credible, viable plan” to ensure the safety of ships in the Strait of Hormuz, but was unwilling for Britain to be drawn into a wider war.
Discussions are under way between Europe, America and Gulf states, he said at a Downing Street media briefing. Mr Starmer has resisted US President Donald Trump’s demands for Britain to send Royal Navy warships to help secure the vital oil and gas shipping route, which has been effectively closed to tankers by the Iran war.
Significant pressure has been imposed by the US President on countries to help reopen the waterway. He warned allies it would be “very bad for the future of Nato” if they did not step up.
“It won’t be a Nato mission and will have to be an alliance of partners from Europe and the US,” Mr Starmer said. He added that "working with others, including the US, is the way forward,” but Britain “will not be drawn into the wider war”.
Europe’s response
Europe has warships in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the majority from France, as well as vessels from Greece and Spain. Britain has belatedly sent a Type-45 air defence destroyer to the region and it should arrive this week.
While French President Emmanuel Macron has been a strong advocate of using naval force to get convoys moving, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been much more reticent, determined to keep his forces out of the war.
Several other countries, including Japan and Australia, have already declined to send ships. They are reluctant to be pulled into a wider Middle East conflict, fearing escalation with Iran, which has warned it could retaliate against states participating in escorts.
“Iran has shown it is prepared to challenge foreign naval forces operating near its waters,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the Chatham House think tank. “If escorts come under attack, that could escalate quickly into a broader conflict.”
Nato unity
Nato’s unity has been tested by Mr Trump's demands for ships to be escorted in the strait. While Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty states that an attack on one is an attack on all, it did not apply to “a war of choice”, the former head of Britain’s armed forces said.
“Nato was created as a defensive alliance … it is not an alliance that was designed for one of the allies to go on a war of choice and then oblige everyone else to follow,” Nick Carter, a retired general, told the BBC. “I’m not sure that was the sort of Nato any of us want to belong to.”
That view was further endorsed by cabinet minister Pat McFadden, who went on to describe the conflict as “not a Nato war” but “US-Israeli action”.
But Mr Carter said it was in the “national interest” to keep the strait open. “I think what we would want to see is a really well co-ordinated operation, led by the Americans with many nations involved in it,” he added.
Mr Trump’s demand also put Nato in a difficult position,” said Ben Barry, a visiting professor at the department of war studies, at King's College London. “The operation itself is not a Nato mission, but the political pressure attached to it risks turning a maritime security issue into an alliance test.”
Convoy challenges
A further problem would be getting the ships from the Mediterranean to the Gulf, with the potential of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as the need to closely co-ordinate with US warships in the area, experts told The National.
“Convoying is a really challenging naval operation,” said Nick Childs, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. “Naval forces are stretched pretty thin at the moment so actually getting together a sufficient capability would also be a challenge. This looks very problematic.”
He added that, if Iran decided to use its drones, missiles or estimated stockpile of 5,000 mines, Nato capabilities would be severely tested.
Gulf mine hunters
Mr Starmer also said the Royal Navy had autonomous mine-hunting systems operating in the Arabian Gulf. This is understood to be the Iver4 underwater drones – two-metre-long, torpedo-shaped submarines that scan the seabed and map the location of potential mines to depths of 300 metres.
While the drones cannot tackle the mines, operating for many hours at depth means they can map safe routes for ships.
Meanwhile, polling has shown that three quarters of UK citizens are braced for a negative impact from the war on the British and global economies. Only a quarter of those surveyed by YouGov thought the US-led attacks will have a positive effect on blunting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, while about a fifth thought they would be counterproductive in the longer term.
A further two thirds thought the conflict would negatively impact stability for a long time in the Middle East.
