The UK has offered to host an international security summit to draw up a “viable, collective plan” to reopen the strait of Hormuz as economic fallout from the Iran conflict continues.
Defence chiefs have been discussing how they could unblock the vital shipping lane, through which about 20% of global oil supplies usually pass, amid the Middle East crisis unleashed by the US and Israel.
The Ministry of Defence has already sent military planners to US Central Command to look at options for getting tankers through the strait, which has in effect been closed by Tehran’s threat of retaliatory attacks.
More than 30 countries including the United Arab Emirates, the UK, France, Germany, Canada and Australia have signed a joint statement agreeing to work on “appropriate efforts” to safeguard the waterway.
UK military chiefs have held talks with counterparts to discuss the practicalities of securing the strait, including deploying minesweeping drones to the Gulf, after western countries rejected Donald Trump’s requests to send naval vessels while the conflict was at such a dangerous point.
One defence official said: “There will be a further meeting, military to military, the chiefs of defence staff of the wider group that has now signed that [statement], and potentially inviting other nations that have not signed it, later this week. I anticipate that at some point in the near future there’ll be some kind of strait of Hormuz security conference.”
The summit could be held in London or navy headquarters in Portsmouth, they said, “in order to build this coalition and develop momentum so that as soon as the conditions are right, we’re able to open a safe route through the strait and provide that reassurance to merchant shipping”.
Keir Starmer told the Commons liaison committee on Monday that there would not necessarily be a “quick and early end” to the conflict despite Trump postponing strikes on Iranian power plants.
The UK and its allies are pressing for a swift de-escalation of the conflict as concerns grow about the deep economic damage being inflicted while the strait is closed. Oil prices and government borrowing costs have risen sharply, with a knock-on effect on inflation.
The Labour MP Matt Western, who chairs the joint committee on national security strategy, said the conflict meant Trump’s presidency was on course to be one of the “most foolhardy and costly” for the global economy.
“Trump and Netanyahu’s catastrophic military folly is crippling the global economy and hurting the pockets of British consumers. Despite this government’s best efforts, we are still heavily dependent on oil and gas,” Western said.
“About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait of Hormuz, it is the busiest oil shipping channel in the world. And it is at a virtual standstill. As expected, the price of energy has skyrocketed. Gas prices have almost doubled and the price of oil has jumped.”
He called on western leaders to stand firm in pressing for urgent de-escalation, and said “trigger-happy Trump” had committed a “massive strategic error which is damaging its allies and benefiting its adversaries”, as China and Russia profit from the crisis.
