European Union rejects Trump’s calls for military deployments to reopen Strait of Hormuz

London — The European Union — the 27 nation bloc that includes some of America’s closest allies — made it clear Tuesday that it would not be racing to meet President Trump’s calls for military assistance to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. 

The war launched by the U.S. and Israel against Iran has seen traffic through the vital shipping lane grind nearly to a halt due to Tehran’s retaliatory missile and drone fire across the Persian Gulf. Roughly a fifth of all crude oil supplies typically pass through the strait, so the closure has caused a sharp rise in global energy prices. 

Mr. Trump has issued repeated demands that America’s European allies, all of whom were cut out of the planning ahead of the assault on Iran, deploy warships to help protect commercial vessels navigating the strait. 

“Nobody is ready to put their people in harm’s way in the Strait of Hormuz,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. “We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertilizers crisis, energy crisis as well.”

Mr. Trump has focused significant criticism in recent days on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has also declined to commit to any specific assistance in the Persian Gulf beyond defending British interests and allies from Iran’s attacks.

On Monday, Starmer said the U.K. would “not be drawn into the wider war” but that “we have to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the market. That is not a simple task.”

Starmer said the U.K. was working with all of its allies, “to bring together a viable, collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impacts.”

He said at every stage of the conflict in Iran, he has stood by his principles, “that our decisions should be based on a calm, level-headed assessment of the British national interest. And that if we are to send our servicemen and women into harm’s way, the very least they deserve is to know that they do so on a legal basis and with a proper, thought through plan.”

“My leadership is about standing firm for the British interest, no matter the pressure,” Starmer said. “And I believe time will show that we have the right approach.”

Kallas had said Monday that the EU could potentially expand its existing Operation Aspides naval mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea up to the Persian Gulf, or that it could build a “coalition of the willing” among member nations to contribute military capacity on an ad hoc basis.

France has also suggested willingness to work with other countries on a potential international mission to escort ships through the strait, but only after fighting has subsided in the region.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Monday that it was important for the U.S. and Israel to lay out “when they consider the military aims of their deployment to have been reached,” adding: “We need more clarity here.” 

And Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said Monday that the EU remained uncommitted to military action.

“The fact is, for the moment, the EU is not directly part of the situation. So we need to decide if we are going to be part or not. That’s an important decision,” Bettel said.

Mr. Trump on Monday said “numerous countries have told me they’re on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years — we’ve protected them from horrible outside sources — and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level enthusiasm, of enthusiasm, matters to me.”