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European countries including France have opened talks with Tehran seeking to negotiate a deal to guarantee safe passage for their ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to people briefed on the efforts, in a bid to restart energy shipments from the Gulf.
Shipments through the narrow chokepoint at the entrance to the Gulf, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows, are negligible after Iranian attacks on tankers and a vow from the country’s new supreme leader to keep it closed.
European capitals have opened the tentative discussions in an attempt to restart oil and gas exports without expanding the conflict, three officials briefed on the talks told the FT, as shipping companies look to western navies to provide potential escorts for their tankers.
France is one of the countries involved in the talks, two of the officials said. The first official said Italy had also made attempts to open discussions with Tehran on the issue.
There was no guarantee that the talks would progress or that Iran was willing to negotiate on the issue, two of the officials stressed. Tehran is widely suspected of trying to boost oil and natural gas prices to pressure US President Donald Trump to end the conflict, and Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed on Thursday to keep blocking the strait.
European countries have sought to fastidiously avoid any direct participation in the conflict, and some have criticised the initial US-Israeli attack that provoked the wider regional war.
But governments are deeply concerned about any sustained blockage of the strait driving up energy costs for businesses and households, compounding the continent’s economic woes and further pressurising already strained national budgets.
Oil prices have risen to about $100 a barrel from near $60 a barrel at the beginning of the year, while European natural gas prices have risen 75 per cent over the same period.
Italy, France and Greece have warships in the Red Sea as part of the EU’s Aspides naval protection mission. But no European navies are prepared to escort ships through Hormuz, the officials said, if there is a risk of attack, for fear of escalating the war. “It has to be a permissible environment,” said the first official.
A second official, who declined to name which countries were in discussions with Tehran, said other European capitals had voiced opposition to the outreach efforts. “Some think we need to talk to the Iranians. But [EU states] have very different views on this, which is making it more complicated,” they said.
Britain is not talking directly to Iran about access to the strait, according to UK officials. However, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, who is on a visit to Saudi Arabia, is discussing the continuity of oil supply with Gulf states.
French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that Paris would be prepared to participate in escorting ships if the conflict subsides.
An Élysée spokesperson referred the FT to a social media post by Macron last week, which stated that he had spoken to Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and stressed to him that Tehran “needs to guarantee freedom of navigation to put an end to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz”.
An Italian foreign ministry spokesman said that Rome was in contact with Tehran “only for understanding when Iranians want to de-escalate this situation” and insisted Italy was not trying to gain an advantage.
“Maybe there are phone calls,” the spokesperson said. “But this is not a moment of intense negotiation.”
Italian defence minister Guido Crosetto said in an interview with Corriere della Sera published on Friday: “We are trying to get Europe to speak with a single, united voice . . . pushing for two key points. The first is to officially request . . . to allow ships from countries that are not at war to pass through Hormuz.”
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher in London and Amy Kazmin in Rome