Foreign: The leaders of France and Britain on Friday will gather several countries, but not the United States, to push ahead with plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil route that has been closed by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
According to the AP published on April 17, 2026, the meeting in Paris is part of an attempt by outside countries to ease the impact of a conflict they did not start and were not involved in, but that has caused a global economic downturn. After the war began on February 28, Iran closed the narrow strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes.
The United States is not part of the plan for what is being called the Freedom of Navigation Initiative. In a post on X ahead of Friday’s conference, French President Emmanuel Macron said the mission to provide security for shipping through the strait would be “strictly protected,” limited to non-state actors and deployed “when security conditions permit.”
Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have led international efforts to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran, which Starmer accused of “hijacking the global economy.” U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a retaliatory U.S. blockade of Iranian ports has raised economic risks even higher.
Translated by Nay Tola
