Cooper condemns Iranian ‘recklessness’ in talks to reopen Strait of Hormuz

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has condemned “Iranian recklessness” for “hitting global economic security” in talks with a coalition of countries aimed at reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane for oil.

Britain is seeking to lead a diplomatic initiative, including countries such as France, Germany and some Gulf nations, to restore access to the maritime route being throttled by Iran in retaliation for the US-Israeli campaign against it.

It comes after US President Donald Trump said countries that rely on the strait should “build up some delayed courage” and “just grab it”, and suggested that after the Iran conflict was over, the critical waterway would “just open up naturally”.

Chairing a video call with counterparts and representatives from more than 40 countries on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary said: “In today’s meeting, we are focusing on the diplomatic and international planning measures, including collective mobilisation of our full range of diplomatic and economic tools and pressures, reassurance work with industry, insurers and energy markets, and also action to guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and effective coordination that we need across the world to enable a safe and sustained opening of the strait.”

She hit out at Tehran after “over 25 attacks on vessels in the strait” and said “there are some 20,000 trapped seafarers on some 2,000 trapped ships”.

She said: “Iranian recklessness towards countries who were never involved in this conflict… is not just hitting mortgage rates and petrol prices and the cost of living here in the UK and in many different countries across the world, it is hitting our global economic security.”

The senior minister pointed to World Bank predictions that Tehran’s grip on the strait could push nine million people worldwide into food insecurity, “alongside the unsustainable increases that we have seen in oil prices and food prices hitting households and businesses in every corner of the world”.

Another meeting next week among military planners will consider how to “marshal our collective defensive military capabilities”, Ms Cooper said, including looking at issues such as clearing mines that have possibly been laid by Tehran to sink ships in the sea passage.

American leader Mr Trump had earlier insisted the US did not need the oil going through the maritime pinch point, as he encouraged others to step up and free it from Iranian control.

In an address to his nation about the month-long Iran offensive, he said: “The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it. They must grab it and cherish it. They can do it easily.

“We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.”

Despite Mr Trump’s remarks, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has admitted unblocking the lane will “not be easy”.

The US leader has hinted that the end of the war, which has divided his supporters, could come soon.

America’s military objectives will be completed “very shortly” he said, adding that Washington could withdraw in two or three weeks.

Elsewhere, Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told reporters that Mr Trump must not abandon “a mess that he’s made” in the Middle East by leaving other countries to reopen the Strait.

Speaking during a visit to the North East, she said: “But if I was speaking to him, I’d be saying, ‘if you break it, you own it’. That’s what Colin Powell, a former secretary of state in the US, had said. ‘If you break it, you own it’.

“He started this war. We said that if he needed support against Iran … use our air bases. That’s one of the things that Britain has done.

“He should now not be abandoning a mess that he’s made, if he thinks that it is a mess.”

In another sign of the changing opinions of Mr Trump within British politics, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage told a press conference he is not “angry” with the US president for entering the war, but added it is “difficult listening to the press conferences sometimes” to work out what Mr Trump’s motivation was.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey meanwhile urged Sir Keir to “step up” with plans to reopen the oil and gas shipping route throttled by Iran, adding: “The Prime Minister needs to show an alternative.”