{"id":7115,"date":"2026-04-17T23:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7115\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:35:30","slug":"iran-war-france-and-uk-to-lead-defensive-force-for-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7115\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran war: France and UK to lead \u2018defensive\u2019 force for Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">France and Britain said on Friday that they would lead a multinational mission to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, while emphasising the force would be entirely defensive and only deployed once lasting peace in the region was agreed.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed the force was being set up as they co-chaired international talks in Paris focused on ensuring free-flowing trade through the critical shipping corridor.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The conference, held mainly by video link, brought together a total of 49 countries from Europe and Asia, which were represented at various levels including dozens of heads of state and government.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Neither the United States nor Iran, as warring parties, took part in the meeting.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Iran imposed a blockade as soon as the US and Israel launched the war against the Islamic republic on February 28. The economic impact rippled worldwide, triggering inflation fears, concerns over fuel supplies and worries about food shortages.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"(From left) French President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Keir Starmer, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (behind) arrive to give a joint statement in Paris, France, on Friday. Photo: EPA\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bf1ce0ea-9cfe-4ad0-8c46-dcf6487dfe2f_0db033c1.jpg\" title=\"(From left) French President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Keir Starmer, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (behind) arrive to give a joint statement in Paris, France, on Friday. Photo: EPA\"\/>(From left) French President Emmanuel Macron, British PM Keir Starmer, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (behind) arrive to give a joint statement in Paris, France, on Friday. Photo: EPA<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But markets responded with relief when Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said \u2013 in a social media post published while the Paris talks were in progress \u2013 that the Strait of Hormuz was now open to commercial vessels as long as a ceasefire in the Middle East lasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France and Britain said on Friday that they would lead a multinational mission to ensure freedom of navigation&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5886,195,73,5,732,2034,50,3053,72,341,30,340,3292,955,187],"class_list":{"0":"post-7115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-abbas-araghchi","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-friedrich-merz","13":"tag-giorgia-meloni","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-middle-east","17":"tag-nato","18":"tag-paris","19":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","20":"tag-tehran","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}