France’s aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and accompanying warships are moving closer to the Strait of Hormuz in preparation for a possible mission to restore navigation in the key thoroughfare, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday.
The fleet has passed through the Suez Canal and is heading for the southern Red Sea, the ministry added in a statement.
Traffic in the strategic waterway, through which around one-fifth of the world’s crude oil normally transits, has all but stopped since conflict erupted in the Middle East in late February.
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are leading a multinational mission to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, which they say would be entirely defensive and only deployed once lasting peace in the region was agreed.
The deployment is intended to shorten the response time for the multi-national naval mission.
More than 40 countries have begun military planning in London towards the Hormuz mission. Germany, for its part, is deploying the minehunter Fulda towards the Mediterranean.
The French Defence Ministry said the carrier group’s movement would support operational reconnaissance and preparations for the mission, while also helping reassure commercial shipping operators.
It added that the deployment could provide additional options for easing the crisis and strengthening security in the region.
Paris stressed that the redeployment of its naval forces was not linked to the ongoing military confrontation involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
According to a Macron aide, “the reason we must now make a renewed effort is quite simply that the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues, the damage to the global economy is becoming increasingly severe, and the risk of prolonged hostilities is too serious for us to accept”.
‘Common interest’
France has proposed to the United States and Iran that they “deal with the issue of the Strait of Hormuz separately” from the rest of the conflict.
“It is in the common interest,” the aide said.
“We can offer Iran the chance to pass through the Strait of Hormuz again”, the aide said, “on one condition: that Iran agrees to take part in the substantive negotiations to which the Americans are inviting it.”
“What we are telling the Americans is that they must lift their blockade of Hormuz and take advantage of Iran’s willingness to negotiate on key issues,” the Elysee representative added.
If those conditions are met, the coalition can deploy resources to guarantee the safety of vessels passing through the strait and “help restore the confidence needed to calm the markets”.
The aircraft carrier has around 20 Rafale fighter jets and is escorted by several frigates.
The Charles de Gaulle set sail from the southeastern French port city of Toulon in January for a deployment to the North Atlantic.
But in early March, it was redirected to the eastern Mediterranean to defend French interests and allied countries struck by Iran’s retaliation for Israeli-American attacks.
