{"id":5688,"date":"2026-03-11T07:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5688\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T07:36:19","slug":"germany-italy-and-belgium-convene-eu-leaders-to-tackle-energy-crisis-ahead-of-march-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/5688\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany, Italy and Belgium convene EU leaders to tackle energy crisis ahead of March summit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain is not dispatching<\/a> either of its aircraft carriers to reinforce its Middle East posture \u2014 despite escalating tensions with Iran.<\/p>\n

HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy\u2019s flagship carrier, was brought to enhanced readiness on Saturday, a designation that compresses a standard 14-day preparation timeline to just five days.<\/p>\n

The move immediately triggered speculation that the vessel would be redirected either to the Mediterranean to shield Britain\u2019s air base at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus from Iranian drone and missile attacks, or to the Gulf to assert British interests more broadly.<\/p>\n

Yet Downing Street moved on Monday to douse those expectations, indicating that HMS Prince of Wales was significantly more likely to proceed to the High North for previously scheduled NATO exercises.<\/p>\n

Pressed on why the carrier appeared to be sailing in the opposite direction from the Middle East conflict, the Prime Minister\u2019s official spokesman urged reporters not to draw a connection. \u201cI would ask you not to link this to Iran\u2019s activities,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n

The presence of the Royal Navy\u2019s most powerful surface vessel in the region had been widely anticipated to provide a substantial boost to allied deterrence. HMS Prince of Wales and her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth are the largest and most capable warships ever built for the Royal Navy. At full complement, each can carry 36 F-35B stealth fighters capable of intercepting air threats across short, medium and long ranges.<\/p>\n

Destroyer\u2019s passage to the Eastern Mediterranean expected to take roughly one week<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence was categorical that no decision had been taken to alter HMS Prince of Wales\u2019s deployment. A spokesperson confirmed the ship has \u201calways been at very high readiness,\u201d but acknowledged the Navy had \u201cincreased the ship\u2019s readiness state, reducing the time it would take to put to sea for any deployment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s sole warship currently committed to the region is the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon \u2014 and even that vessel is not expected to depart Portsmouth until Wednesday, March 11, with a transit to the Eastern Mediterranean estimated at approximately one week.<\/p>\n

Type 45 destroyers are the only British warships equipped to intercept ballistic missiles, deploying the Sea Viper weapon system. The system can launch eight missiles \u2014 each valued at \u00a31 million \u2014 in under ten seconds and simultaneously guide 16 projectiles to their targets.<\/p>\n

France, meanwhile, announced plans for an \u201cunprecedented\u201d naval deployment spanning the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking Monday, President Emmanuel Macron said the force would comprise eight frigates, two amphibious assault helicopter carriers and France\u2019s nuclear-powered flagship, the Charles de Gaulle. Addressing the nation from the flight deck of the carrier near Crete, Macron confirmed that the frigate Languedoc and the Mistral air defence system had already been positioned to defend Cyprus.<\/p>\n

British combat aircraft press on with \u2018defensive\u2019 operations against Iran in the theatre<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s spokesman confirmed that the government has deployed \u201csignificant offensive capabilities to protect the British people and our allies in the region.\u201d These include six F-35 combat jets, layered air defence systems and an additional 400 personnel at Cyprus.<\/p>\n

A detachment of four RAF Typhoons continues to operate from a joint air base in Qatar, reinforced last week by four additional fighters. On Sunday night, British aircraft destroyed a drone over Jordan and intercepted a second craft advancing toward Bahrain. The UK has also launched defensive air sorties in support of the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs that Britain\u2019s preparations have \u201cmade a real difference,\u201d stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cSince January, we have deployed significant military assets to the region ahead of the initial US and Israeli strikes. That means we have been conducting defensive military operations from day one. Our F-35s have destroyed Iranian drones over Jordan. Our Typhoons have struck targets heading toward Qatar. Our counter-drone units have intercepted attacks on coalition bases in Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary: Drone that struck Cyprus was fired from Iraq or Lebanon<\/p>\n

Healey told<\/a> the House of Commons that British pilots had accumulated \u201cmore than 230 flight hours\u201d defending Gulf allies. \u201cIn Qatar, we have eight jets \u2014 including our joint Qatar-UK squadron flying to support regional partners \u2014 and in Cyprus we have more jets than any other country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Facing accusations that the government had not moved quickly enough to protect British interests, Healey disclosed that naval crews had worked \u201c22 hours without rest\u201d to bring the warship to readiness.<\/p>\n

The Defence Secretary also informed MPs that the drone which struck RAF Akrotiri was a small device that \u201ccame from Lebanon or Iraq\u201d \u2014 an acknowledgment that British experts have yet to definitively establish its precise point of origin. Cypriot sources had suggested a week earlier that the aircraft had flown from territory controlled by Iran-backed Hezbollah militias. Components from the drone \u2014 previously identified as an Iranian-manufactured Shahed-type munition \u2014 are being subjected to forensic analysis to assess foreign military hardware. Healey added that his government is not in a position to confirm media reporting that the drone incorporated Russian components.<\/p>\n

Criticism of Starmer government\u2019s \u2018delays\u2019 intensifies<\/p>\n

The protracted timetable for deploying even a single Royal Navy warship to the region has sharpened criticism of Britain\u2019s handling of the Iran crisis and of its broader state of military readiness.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump publicly accused the Starmer government of moving too slowly on the carrier deployment, declaring that the US no longer required British assistance. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: \u201cWe don\u2019t need people who join wars we\u2019ve already won!\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain had initially blocked the US from using its bases to conduct strikes against Iran, before subsequently authorising their use for \u201cdefensive\u201d operations targeting Iranian storage facilities and missile launch infrastructure. Since Friday, at least 11 heavy bombers have touched down at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, a signal that the US is preparing a fresh wave of strikes. Aircraft observed on the runway have included B-1B Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress bombers.<\/p>\n

Shadow defence spokesman James Cartlidge denounced the government\u2019s hesitancy, noting that France, Greece and Spain had all dispatched warships to Cyprus. \u201cLabour\u2019s failure to deploy the Royal Navy to the Eastern Mediterranean has comprehensively damaged our international standing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Healey pushed back, laying blame on successive Conservative governments for \u201chollowing out and underfunding\u201d British forces \u2014 cutting the defence budget by \u00a312 billion and reducing the fleet of frigates and destroyers from 23 vessels to 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain is not dispatching either of its aircraft carriers to reinforce its Middle East posture \u2014 despite escalating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,18,4138,4139,1540,1406,383,4140,125,3284,172,387,3609,3164,3165,176,4047,4141,87,300,4142],"class_list":["post-5688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-bureaucratic-reform","tag-deregulation","tag-energy-crisis","tag-energy-prices","tag-eu-summit","tag-european-council","tag-european-union","tag-g7","tag-germany","tag-global-economy","tag-inflation","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-italy","tag-oil-prices","tag-strategic-petroleum-reserves","tag-united-states","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-video-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116209397574888325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}