BRUSSELS: NATO is not drawing up any plans for a potential mission in the Strait of Hormuz and would need a political decision to do so, its top commander said on Tuesday, amid suggestions by some members that the alliance could play a role there.<\/p>\n
Any decision to launch a mission would require the approval of all NATO\u2019s 32 members and several have already signaled opposition, although no formal proposal has been presented \u200cso far, according to \u200cdiplomats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conditions under which NATO would consider operating \u200cin the \u2060Strait of Hormuz are \u2060ultimately a political decision,\u201d said US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO\u2019s Supreme Allied Commander for Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe political direction comes first, and then the formal planning happens after that. Am I thinking about it? Absolutely \u2026 But there\u2019s no planning yet until the political decision is taken,\u201d he told reporters in Brussels.<\/p>\n
Iran began blockading the critical Gulf waterway after the United States and Israel launched military action against the country in February. \u2060The blockade has pushed up the prices of oil, driven up \u200cshipping costs and squeezed supplies of raw materials. US \u200cPresident Donald Trump has berated NATO members for not being willing to help open the \u200cStrait. European nations have said they do not want to be drawn into \u200cthe war \u2014 which was launched without consulting them \u2014 but are ready to help secure the Strait after the war. So far, France and Britain have taken the lead in putting together a coalition of countries that could help ensure safe transit through the Strait once the situation \u200cthere stabilizes or the conflict is resolved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS: NATO is not drawing up any plans for a potential mission in the Strait of Hormuz and would need a political decision to do so, its top commander said on Tuesday, amid suggestions by some members that the alliance could play a role there. Any decision to launch a mission would require the approval …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":98018,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98005","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\/98005","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=98005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98021,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98005\/revisions\/98021"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}