Britain hosted a virtual summit Thursday with diplomats from more than 40 nations to discuss reopening the Strait of Hormuz — a critical oil shipping lane that has been essentially shut down since the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began on Feb. 28.
The United States did not attend.
President Trump made clear ahead of the meeting that reopening the waterway is not Washington’s problem. “Countries that depend on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz must grab it and cherish it,” Trump said in a televised address Wednesday night. He has criticized European allies repeatedly for declining to support the military campaign while still expecting the U.S. to clean up the economic fallout.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who hosted the meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London, said the talks focused on political and diplomatic means rather than military options. “We have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage,” Cooper said at the opening of the session, the Associated Press reports. She described rising oil and food prices as “unsustainable” and said they were “hitting households and businesses in every corner of the world.”
No country has shown willingness to force the strait open by military means while fighting continues between the U.S.-Israeli coalition and Iran.
Trump has threatened to intensify strikes and specifically warned that American forces have “our eyes on key targets including the country’s electric generating plants” if Iran does not come to the table. He said earlier this week that Iran had asked for a ceasefire, a claim Tehran promptly denied. Iranian military command issued a statement promising “more crushing, broader, and more destructive actions” and vowing the war would continue “until your humiliation, disgrace, permanent and certain regret, and surrender.”
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed messages have been passed through intermediaries including Pakistan but said there are “no direct negotiations with the U.S.”
