London is hosting conversations today and tomorrow to shape a mission to protect navigation in the Seaway of Hormuz as soon as conditions allow.
Specifically, Britain has announced that it will host military officials from some thirty countries today and tomorrow, Thursday, to discuss the formation of a mission led by Britain and France in the Straits of Hormuz.
The conference will allow detailed planning to progress for the reopening of the Strait as soon as conditions allow, following “progress” made at the Paris talks last week, the British Ministry of Defence explained.
“The aim today and tomorrow is to turn diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Straits and support a lasting ceasefire,” Britain’s defence secretary John Healey said in a statement quoted in a statement issued. Healey expressed confidence that “concrete progress can be made.”
These talks will follow those held in Paris on Friday on this strategic sea route involving more than 40 countries under the auspices of Britain’s prime minister Kir Starmer and the President of France Emanuel Macron.
Starmer said France and Britain will lead a multinational mission to ensure free navigation in the strait “as soon as conditions allow”.
Britain and France insisted that the mission would be purely defensive and would be deployed only once a lasting peace is established in the region.
The US and Iran, belligerent parties to the conflict, did not participate in the talks. Before the Paris meeting, Downing Street had announced a military planning session this week, without elaborating further.
