ABU DHABI
\nFrance\u2019s top diplomat on Friday said a new US-led coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would complement and not compete with a similar mission spearheaded by France and Britain. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, speaking in Abu Dhabi following a regional tour, said he briefed Gulf allies on the UK-France initiative which was now at an \u201cadvanced\u201d stage.
\nOn Thursday, a US official confirmed to media that Washington was launching an international coalition dubbed the \u201cMaritime Freedom Construct\u201d to restart shipping in the vital route.The strait, which normally carries one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas, has been effectively blockaded by Iran over the Middle East war, sending prices soaring and choking trade networks.
\nThe UK and France have led talks on a separate maritime effort, recently holding a meeting with more than 50 countries. The US mission is \u201cnot of the same nature as the one we established\u2026 it comes as a sort of complement,\u201d Barrot said in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, following visits to Saudi Arabia and Oman.
\n\u201cIt is not in competition with the initiative we have launched and on which we are focused,\u201d he added. The Wall Street Journal said a reported diplomatic cable called on US embassies to press foreign governments to take part in the US-led effort.
\nAsked whether France would join Washington\u2019s initiative, Barrot said he could not comment at this stage. The UK-France mission \u201cis now at an advanced stage, the planning has been finalized, and I have come to present the concept of this mission to a number of our closest partners in the region,\u201d he added.
\nUS President Donald Trump has lashed out at allies\u2019 reluctance to get involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran, and previously urged oil-reliant nations to take responsibility for reopening the strait. Iran has vowed not to reopen the waterway as long as the United States blockades its ports. The closure has had a widespread impact on the global economy, with oil prices hitting a four-year high this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ABU DHABI France\u2019s top diplomat on Friday said a new US-led coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would complement and not compete with a similar mission spearheaded by France and Britain. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, speaking in Abu Dhabi following a regional tour, said he briefed Gulf allies on the UK-France initiative which was …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97153,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97130\/revisions\/97153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}