U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed options for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including the use of military force, with President Trump as Britain seeks to take a leading role in securing free transit through the strategic waterway.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to Qatar on Friday, Mr. Starmer said his Thursday phone call with Mr. Trump focused on the international coalition that the U.K. has built to form a framework to reopen the strait, which has been effectively closed for more than a month.
“We’ve been pulling together a coalition of countries … working on a political, diplomatic plan, but also looking at military capabilities and the logistics of actually moving vessels through the strait. That was the focus of the discussion last night,” he said.
The revelation that Mr. Starmer discussed using military force to reopen the strait is a notable diversion from previous statements made by the prime minister and other European leaders party to the coalition.
Just days before the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was announced, Mr. Starmer made it clear that reopening the Strait of Hormuz would not be, “and it’s never been envisioned to be, a NATO mission.”
Leaders from France, Germany, Italy and Greece also openly rejected demands from Mr. Trump to commit naval resources to the region to reopen the strait.
Over the past two weeks, the U.K. has led an effort to form an international “Hormuz coalition” of over 35 countries to find a diplomatic solution to the strait closure. The U.S. is notably not part of the coalition, and Mr.Trump has insisted that European countries should figure out how to reopen the waterway by themselves.
