The UK and France will on Tuesday host a multinational meeting of defense ministers on military plans to restore trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said.
The announcement came hours after Iran warned London and Paris against sending warships to the region.
“The Defense Secretary John Healey will co-chair a meeting of over 40 nations, alongside his French counterpart, Minister Catherine Vautrin, for the multinational mission’s first Defense Minister’s meeting,” a British defense ministry statement said Sunday.
The virtual meeting follows a two-day gathering in London in April of military planners who thrashed out the practicalities of a multinational mission led by the UK and France to protect navigation in the key waterway following a sustainable ceasefire.
“We are turning diplomatic agreement into practical military plans to restore confidence for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz,” Healey said.
This comes as France and Britain dispatched warships to the Middle East.
France has sent its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, to the region, and the UK on Saturday said it was sending a destroyer, HMS Dragon.
Both countries said the deployments were a “pre-positioning” ahead of any international mission to help protect shipping.
Meanwhile, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, earlier Sunday warned Britain and France their warships — “or those of any other country” — would meet “a decisive and immediate response.”
“Only the Islamic Republic of Iran can establish security in this strait,” Gharibabadi said.
Macron said later Sunday that France had had “never envisaged” a naval deployment in the Strait of Hormuz but rather a security mission that would be “coordinated with Iran.”
The British defense ministry, moreover, said deploying HMS Dragon would strengthen the confidence of commercial shipping and support mine clearance efforts once hostilities end.
