France Sends in Navy to Re-Open Strait of Hormuz
France is to send in an “unprecedented” naval force to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz amid increasing fears over oil prices after they surged to more than $100 per barrel for the first time in four years. The Mail has more.
President Emmanuel Macron said the “purely defensive” mission by France and its allies would protect the shipping of oil and gas through the passage which usually transports around a fifth of the world’s oil supply before it was closed following the US-Israel war with Iran.
After meeting the presidents of Greece and Cyprus today, Macron said he planned to unleash an “unprecedented” naval force in the Mediterranean, the Sea and off the Strait of Hormuz, which consists of eight frigates, two helicopter carriers and the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.
Oil prices have surged to more than $100 per barrel amid increasing fears over supplies from the Middle East as global markets including the FTSE 100 showed signs of panic when trading opened.
An emergency meeting of the G7 has been called for today, where crisis options including the release of oil reserves will be discussed.
Elsewhere the US Navy has reportedly attacked three Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf. Sources say the merchant vessels were struck during strikes on the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. Video and pictures circulating on social media show flames and huge plumes of smoke blowing from the ships.
And Donald Trump has said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a “mutual” decision on when to end the war with Iran as Pete Hegseth guaranteed Tehran “will surrender”.
Follow the Mail’s live coverage here.
Macron said:
We are in the process of setting up a purely defensive, purely escort mission, which must be prepared together with both European and non-European states, and whose purpose is to enable, as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict has ended, the escort of container ships and tankers to gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Our objective is to maintain a strictly defensive stance, standing alongside all countries attacked by Iran in its retaliation, to ensure our credibility, and to contribute to regional de-escalation. Ultimately, we aim to guarantee freedom of navigation and maritime security.
Macron’s France showing up Starmer’s Britain. The humiliation continues.
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Say what you like about the French, that’s an impressive move – just the right amount of kit needed to protect their carrier. At the same time, we are importing ~28% of our electricity today over international interconnectors… much of which will be coming from the French nuclear stations…
I wonder if Macron has decided this is a good moment to ‘stick it to the Brit’s’ and curry favour with the US?
Today’s electricity sources at 4pm.
18% wind & solar. 54% gas.
Great plan, Ed.
That’s extraordinary. Just imagine having a Navy with EIGHT operational frigates, two helicopter carriers AND a fully-operational aircraft carrier WITH aircraft !! Our chums in the Admiralty probably weren’t even alive when the RN had such largesse at its disposal.
And where are the British fleet? No doubt Labour are having a Committee meeting to decide through the chair what should be done along with what sort of Biscuit should they be having at the committee meetings.
And when the next meeting is to be held, surely?
I imagine they’ll go for the sort of biscuit that goes all limp and falls apart at the first hint of dunking.
I rather liked Limp Bizkit.
They have run out of stocks of rainbow camouflage paint, and are waiting for an Amazon delivery.
Forced to stay in harbour for now because the politically extremely important question what kind of make-up sailors who self-identify as women self-identfying as men who self-identify as women are allowed when in dress uniform hasn’t yet been decided.
A military is only effective if it has no women and no gays. That removes all sexual and romantic distractions from the warriors except when they’re at home or in port.
No gays is impossible to achieve and both the IDF and the American forces seem reasonably effective despite they include women. Also, removal of all sexual and romantic distractions only works for short wars, eg, the Prussian – Austrian war of 1866 which was decided in a continuous series of battles culminating in the battle of Königgrätz/ Sadowa. Once soldiers are away from home for prolonged periods of time, human nature will assert itself in this respect.
Eg, Jünger (In Stahlgewittern/ Storms of Steel) recounts his more memorable sexual encounters in France during the first world war. He usually describes this as him being in the home of some woman who is either unmarried or whose husband serves with the French army on the other side of the front and “talking” to her. But this was certainly everything which took place. Authors from the same time with less literary and more mass entertainment ambitions can be quite lurid (for the standards of a time when pornography was illegal).
We don’t have a fleet.
They are checking with El Starmeri’s muslim buddies if it is OK to send ships.
Come on ….. top of the Agenda is the shade of nail varnish which is permitted for men and women in the Navy.
I am confused by the current panic in oil prices. It is a raw material for which inflation is irrelevant and I don’t know why. In 2008 oil hit nearly $150 per barrel, which is about $225 when index linked. We are less than half that at the moment, but apparently the world will come to an end and economies will collapse. Why is that, why is oil seemingly alone in not being impacted by inflation and if the price two weeks ago was less than eighty dollars, (less than fifty dollars in 2008 money) how producers made money at that price is anyone’s guess.
The reason is because the demand is much reduced now, a lot of oil is either in storage or being sailed around in circles until landing it is more profitable.
I am surprised that over the years a method of avoiding the Straits of Hormuz has not been developed, although perhaps the issue is that until recently the whole area was not in favour of doing that.
I’d say there is a fair amount of noise being generated to get the prices up across the board, in addition to the ongoing Iran and neighbours situation. Luckily, the US will continue to sell us what we need and even grow their sales… hmmmm
There are views that say it spiked at $125 a barrel then came back down to $100. This was thanks to the Don making plans to deal with this situation. And Lloyds insurance had said that ships would not get insurance to enter the gulf, but Don threatened to set up a US insurance scheme, and they backed down. Now the US is offering to help insure ships so it is likely there will be sailings (probably under escort) after all.
Yet another total embarrassment for Britain, the once greatest navy on earth can’t even protect a few ships against Iran!? Ffs
Various commentators who apparently have some knowledge of these matters rg Alastair Crooke/The Duran say Iran is easily capable of sinking any ship they choose from the myriad of bunkered missile/drone/artillery sites on the cliffs/mountains which are on their side of the straits.
The US navy has done a tactical withdrawal from the area for that reason.
Can’t see the French having any real effect.
Then there’s the small matter of seamen’s lives and maritime insurance to consider.
One would think that the US Air Force would be capable of dealing with the missile storage sites in Iran, a fleet of B-2s and some penetrating ordnance should be sufficient.
The French have some good kit – remember it was them who ‘helped’ the Argentinians with Sidewinder supply back in the early eighties. Whether they choose to use it first or not I don’t know – I’d say unlikely. However if their carrier comes under fire I think they’ll do whatever is needed to protect it – losing that would be a very bad look indeed
May be wrong, but I don’t think they’ll risk going anywhere near the Straits.
It’s just political posturing. They will lose ships and men if they try it.
Iran has been preparing for this for the last 30 plus years.
Neither the USA nor France will risk it.
If they or the US are going to escort oil tankers then they’ll need to be pretty close no? 😉
Exocets actually – anti-ship missiles. Sidewinders are American anti-aircraft missiles.
Of course – I stand corrected, brain fade!
Typical French. Won’t go until the bullets have stopped flying. Happy to deploy when there is limited risk. Britain isn’t much better. Shameful degradation of our war fighting capabilities. Tories, Lib Dumbs and Labour are all to blame for this.
They are still well ahead of UK
To be fair, Macron is showing up LibLabCON Britain …. and the humiliation continues.
The LibCON sections of the Uni-Party are more culpable as Labour since they are responsible for 14 years of utter uselessness, and (so far) Two-Tier only 18 months.
We are governed by malign idiots.
Sadly they all give money to causes they think will secure them votes, and therefore benefits get vastly more than the military… saying that, we are spending vast amounts on debt interest as well, again due to profligate money printing / borrowing to buy votes
“France Sends in Navy”
France? Oh well, all our worries are over as history shows.