UK won't join US Strait of Hormuz blockade, Starmer says
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement on Monday that the U.K. will not take part in President Donald Trump's planned blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, which is due to begin on Monday.
"We're not supporting the blockade," Starmer told BBC radio in an interview Monday morning, while declining to say whether the U.K. was sending minesweeper vessels to the Strait, as Trump indicated in an interview with Fox News.
"We do have mine-sweeping capability, I won't go into operational matters, but we do have that capability -- that's all focused, from our point of view, on getting the Strait fully open," Starmer said.
He reiterated his position that the U.K. will not join the conflict. "The UK is not getting dragged in," Starmer said. "That's not in our national interest, because I'm not going to act unless there's a clear, lawful basis and a clear thought-through plan."
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a Monday post to X that the U.K. and France are coordinating on a "peaceful multinational mission" to keep the Strait of Hormuz open to maritime traffic "as soon as circumstances permit."
The two countries will host a conference "in the coming days" Macron said.
"This strictly defensive mission, separate from the warring parties to the conflict, is intended to be deployed as soon as circumstances permit," Macron wrote. "No effort must be spared to swiftly reach, through diplomatic means, a strong and lasting settlement to the conflict in the Middle East."
