British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has confirmed that the United Kingdom will not support the United States military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, joining a chorus of allied governments and global powers in criticising the move announced by President Donald Trump. "We are not supporting the blockade," Starmer said on Monday, adding that Britain was "not getting dragged in" to the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz is the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean, through which roughly 20 percent of the world's oil supplies pass in peacetime. Since the outbreak of the US-Israel war on Iran, traffic through the strait has been heavily restricted, with Iran allowing passage only to vessels from friendly countries such as China. The US military's Central Command announced it would block all maritime traffic entering or exiting Iranian ports from 14:00 GMT on Monday, describing the blockade as applying "impartially against vessels of all nations" — though clarifying it would not impede ships transiting the strait to non-Iranian ports. Trump framed the move as an effort to clear mines from the waterway and prevent Iran from profiting from control of the route.
Starmer was careful not to criticise Trump directly, striking what observers described as a delicate balancing act. He stressed that Britain's priority was reopening the strait fully, noting that the UK had minesweepers in the region with their military capability "focused from our point of view on getting the Strait fully open." French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and the UK would jointly host a conference in the coming days aimed at restoring freedom of navigation, while urging that no diplomatic effort be spared in reaching a lasting resolution to the conflict.
Other US allies were more pointed in their criticism. Spain's Defence Minister Margarita Robles called the blockade a move that "makes no sense," describing it as part of a "downward spiral." Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said negotiations with Iran should be prioritised and the strait opened "as soon as possible." China, a major importer of Iranian oil and Washington's principal geopolitical rival, also condemned the plan, with its foreign ministry calling the strait "an important international trade route" whose security was "in the common interest of the international community."
Analysts have warned that the stakes are extraordinarily high. Nicole Grajewski of the Paris Institute of Political Studies described the blockade not as a minor coercive signal but as something that could amount to a resumption of open hostilities. With oil markets, global food supply chains and diplomatic alliances all affected by the crisis, the coming days — and the planned Franco-British conference — will be closely watched as a test of whether multilateral diplomacy can offer an alternative path to de-escalation.