UK accuses Iran of Hormuz ‘hijack,’ holding global economy hostage |
UK accuses Iran of Hormuz ‘hijack,’ holding global economy hostage
Britain accused Iran on Thursday of holding the world’s economy hostage as diplomats from more than 40 countries held talks on ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
The U.S. is not attending the virtual meeting, which comes after President Donald Trump made clear that he thinks securing the waterway, closed as a consequence of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, is not America’s job. Trump has also disparaged America’s European allies for failing to support the war and renewed his threats to pull the U.S. out of NATO.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the talks, which focus on political and diplomatic rather than military means, showed “the strength of our international determination” to reopen the strait.
“We have seen Iran hijack an international shipping route to hold the global economy hostage,” she said at the start of the meeting. Cooper said “unsustainable” spikes in oil and food prices were “hitting households and businesses in every corner of the world.”
Shipping in the strait has slowed to a trickle
Iranian attacks on commercial ships, and the threat of more, have halted nearly all traffic in the waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe’s oceans, shutting a critical path for the world’s flow of oil and sending........