{"id":1001867,"date":"2026-06-03T03:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001867\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T03:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T03:58:11","slug":"uk-france-mission-to-secure-strait-of-hormuz-a-catch-22-says-marco-rubio-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1001867\/","title":{"rendered":"UK-France mission to secure Strait of Hormuz \u2018a catch-22\u2019, says Marco Rubio \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposed mission by the UK and France to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the Iran war ends has been branded a catch-22 by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n

The top diplomat questioned the need for naval escorts \u201cif no one\u2019s shooting\u201d, but acknowledged it could provide initial reassurance to shipping.<\/p>\n

He expected efforts to reopen the critical waterway would dominate this month\u2019s meeting of heads from the G7 group of leading democracies in Evian, France, pending the outcome of talks between Washington and Tehran.<\/p>\n

\"CargoCargo vessels have been left stranded in the Strait of Hormuz by the conflict (Amirhosein Khorgooi\/ISNA via AP) (Amirhosein Khorgooi\/AP) <\/p>\n

The narrow Gulf channel has become a flashpoint in the conflict, now in its fourth month, with the US military saying on Tuesday evening it had launched strikes on an Iranian ground control station on an island near the strait.<\/p>\n

\"Funeral<\/a><\/p>\n

US Central Command said it had struck the site on Qeshm Island, home to a desalination plant, in response to Iranian missiles fired at Kuwait and Bahrain.<\/p>\n

The US said two missiles fired at Kuwait had fallen apart en route, while those targeting Bahrain were shot down.<\/p>\n

The vital supply route for oil and gas was open to shipping prior to the US and Israel launching strikes against Iran in February.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the strait has shocked economies around the world, including the UK\u2019s, and seen a spike in petrol prices.<\/p>\n

It has led the US to impose its own blockade resulting in an ongoing stand-off and leaving around 1,500 cargo vessels stranded, amid a fragile ceasefire, which has been shaken by ongoing strikes.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the Senate foreign affairs committee, Mr Rubio said the US had not offered to ease sanctions against Iran in exchange for reopening the strait, which he stressed was a key demand as part of any deal.<\/p>\n

Washington has argued Europe needed the sea route \u201cmuch more than we do\u201d and ensuring free transit of vessels was \u201cmuch more their fight than ours\u201d.<\/p>\n

Plans being led by Britain and France to protect shipping in the channel once hostilities end have also fuelled US criticism of allies\u2019 response to the conflict, with Mr Rubio himself previously arguing \u201cit doesn\u2019t make sense\u201d.<\/p>\n

The proposed future defensive mission would see the UK deploy autonomous mine-hunting equipment, anti-drone systems and Typhoon jets, alongside the destroyer HMS Dragon.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Congress, Mr Rubio said freeing up the strait was set to top the agenda at the upcoming G7 summit.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cEven though it\u2019s not a military forum per se, the UK and France are members of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve put together this initiative, which they say they will send mine sweepers and escort ships, but they will do so once hostilities are ended. Kind of a catch-22.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the one hand, I mean, why do you need naval escorts if no one\u2019s shooting at the ships? That said, I don\u2019t diminish the utility of it, because I would imagine the first few ships to go through are going to like to be escorted. So, I think that\u2019s going to be a key feature of that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed mission by the UK and France to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the Iran war…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1001868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,32954,774,2820,277960,285,74677,16],"class_list":["post-1001867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-g7-summit","tag-iran","tag-marco-rubio","tag-naval-security","tag-politics","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-uk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116684175819006674","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1001867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1001867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1001867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1001867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1001867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}