Other US allies criticise Trump\u2019s move, including France, Spain and Turkiye, and China also condemns the plan.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 13 Apr 2026<\/span>13 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his country will not join the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz announced by United States President Donald Trump, a move also criticised by other US allies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not supporting the blockade,\u201d Starmer told BBC radio on Monday, adding that the United Kingdom \u201cis not getting dragged in\u201d to the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Starmer said it was vital to get the strait reopened. In peacetime, about 20 percent of the world\u2019s oil supplies pass through the strategic waterway that links the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is in my view vital that we get the strait open and fully open, and that\u2019s where we\u2019ve put all of our efforts in the last few weeks, and we\u2019ll continue to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Rory Challands, reporting from London, said Starmer has continued to \u201cmaintain a delicate balancing act\u201d of saying the UK will not be joining the war while being careful not to level any criticism directly at Trump regarding his actions in the war.<\/p>\n Traffic through the strait has been heavily restricted since the start of the war. Iran has allowed through only some vessels serving friendly countries, such as China.<\/p>\n Starmer made his statement as the US military announced it would block all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports starting from 14:00 GMT. It was unclear, however, how the US military would enforce the blockade.<\/p>\n \u201cThe blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,\u201d the US military\u2019s Central Command said.<\/p>\n US forces would not impede vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, it added.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Trump said his goal was to clear the strait of mines and reopen it to all shipping and Iran must not be allowed to profit from controlling the waterway.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and the UK would hold a conference in the coming days aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the strait.<\/p>\n Macron reiterated that no diplomatic effort be spared in reaching a lasting end to the US-Israel war on Iran.<\/p>\n Nicole Grajewski, assistant professor at the Center for International Research at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, said a US blockade was \u201cnot a minor coercive signal\u201d but could rather be considered essentially a resumption of the war.<\/p>\n Other US allies also criticised Trump\u2019s move, including Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles, who said the planned naval blockade \u201cmakes no sense\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one more episode in this whole downward spiral into which we\u2019ve been dragged,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Fellow NATO ally Turkiye said the Strait of Hormuz should open \u201cas soon as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNegotiations with Iran should be conducted, persuasion methods should be used and the strait should be opened as soon as possible,\u201d Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the state-run Anadolu news agency.<\/p>\n China, Washington\u2019s great power rival and a big importer of Iranian oil, also criticised the plan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community,\u201d Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun said, urging Iran and the US not to reignite the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other US allies criticise Trump\u2019s move, including France, Spain and Turkiye, and China also condemns the plan. Published On 13 Apr 202613 Apr 2026 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his country will not join the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz announced by United States President Donald Trump, a move also criticised by other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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