London [UK], April 2: The United Kingdom will convene talks with dozens of countries on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced, as the US-Israeli war on Iran has effectively shuttered the critical Gulf waterway.
Speaking during a news conference on Wednesday, Starmer said UK Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper would host a virtual meeting of 35 countries on Thursday to assess measures to reopen the strait "after the fighting has stopped".
The meeting will "assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and resume the movement of vital commodities", the UK prime minister said.
"Following that meeting, we will also convene our military planners to look at how we can marshal our capabilities and make the strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped," Starmer added.
Countries around the world have raised serious concerns about Iran's effective closure of the strait, through which about one-fifth of the world's oil and liquified natural gas supplies transit, amid US-Israeli attacks on Iran and Iranian attacks on targets across the Middle East.
The closure has sent global energy prices soaring and pushed nations to announce that they would release some of their strategic oil and gas reserves in an effort to lessen the crisis.
Source: Qatar Tribune
