LONDON (AP) — Almost three dozen countries will meet Thursday in an effort to exert diplomatic and political pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the virtual meeting chaired by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper “will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and to resume the movement of vital commodities.”
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Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, second right, attends a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper speaks during a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, center, speaks during a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, right, attends a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
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 petroleum prices soaring.
The U.S. is not among the countries attending Thursday's meeting. Trump has said securing the waterway is not America’s job, and told U.S. allies to “go get your own oil.”
No country appears willing to try and open the strait by force while fighting rages and Iran can target vessels with anti-ship missiles, drones, attack craft and mines. But Starmer said Wednesday that military planners from an unspecified number of countries will meet soon to work on how to ensure security for shipping “after the fighting has stopped.”
In the meantime, 35 countries including the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United Arab Emirates have signed a statement demanding Iran stop its attempts to block the strait and pledging to “contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” through the waterway.
Thursday’s meeting is considered a first step, to be followed by “working-level meetings” of officials to hammer out details.
Starmer said resuming shipping “will not be easy,” and will require “a united front of military strength and diplomatic activity” alongside partnership with the maritime industry.
The international effort idea has echoes of the international “coalition of the willing” that has been assembled, led by the U.K. and France, to underpin Ukraine’s security after a future ceasefire in that war. The coalition is, in part, an attempt to demonstrate to the Trump administration that Europe is stepping up to do more for its own security.
The urgency of stronger continental defenses has been reinforced by Trump’s renewed suggestion that the U.S. could pull out of NATO.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, second right, attends a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper speaks during a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, center, speaks during a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, right, attends a virtual summit at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in London, on Thursday April 2, 2026, with around 35 countries to discuss ways of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)
The Strait of Hormuz is, by some accounts, named for a Zoroastrian deity destined to emerge victorious after a 9,000-year standoff with an adversary.
Iran's leaders feel their own victory is at hand and won't require the same epic patience.
They are betting that military pressure will ultimately force the United States to accept their control over the crucial waterway for global energy — and that time is on their side.
They know about the diminishing stockpiles of key U.S. weapons such as advanced missile interceptors. They know the war is deeply unpopular with Americans. They know that as long as the strait is largely closed, the price of gas and other goods will stay high ahead of U.S. congressional elections in November. They know that trying to open it by force would be costly and may require American ground troops. They know their Houthi allies in Yemen could widen the war and disrupt another major trade route.
By that logic, U.S. President Donald Trump has no choice but to capitulate.
But Iran's strategy carries risks.
Trump points to strikes that have decimated Iran's top leadership, navy and air force. He alternates between threatening escalation and saying talks are going well. Iran's own economy has been battered, in part because of a U.S. blockade. Iranians rose up in mass protests just months ago and could do so again.
And Iran's leaders need only look to how Trump's “short-term excursion” to the Middle East has bogged down to be reminded that wars rarely turn out as expected.
Iran says it is close to reaching a deal with Oman to manage the strait, which runs between the two countries. But it would be conditioned on the U.S. lifting its blockade, so even if there are no direct negotiations — as Iran says — Trump would have to approve.
It's unclear whether the deal would allow Iran to charge fees. But it would formalize its control over what had been an open international waterway before the war, one that carried a fifth of the world's traded oil and gas.
Abdolreza Davari, an analyst who once advised former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Iran's effective control of the strait has given it leverage with the U.S. and regional countries that can help guarantee its security.
“More than revenue from the strait, Iran wants to confirm its management and sovereignty over the strait,” he said by phone from Tehran.
Formal control over even part of the strait would be a clear win for Iran and a loss for the U.S., which has yet to accomplish some of its various and shifting goals in the war.
It would also deal a blow to global norms on freedom of navigation and set a precedent that much of the world would find disturbing — that nations can shut down trade choke points at will.
China, which buys oil from Iran and has influence over it, said as recently as May that “normal and safe passage” through the strait should be restored.
To borrow a phrase from Trump's own theory of geopolitics, Iran believes it holds the cards.
“They started the war, but its end was never with them. We always decide for ourselves when it ends," Mahdi Mohammadi, an adviser to Iran's chief negotiator, posted on social media. “Iran is going after the enemy’s defeat — not an agreement.”
He said a surprise Iranian attack on Jordan in July “compensated” for a drop in oil prices. That contributed to the collapse of an interim agreement reached in June that had offered significant concessions to Iran, including a U.S. waiver to sell oil internationally and the promise of broader sanctions relief.
Iran has repeatedly said the Strait of Hormuz will not go back to being an open waterway, and that it will keep attacking ships trying to transit without its permission. Iran's joint military command has called it an “unbreakable red line.”
“For Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has become a strategic lever for deterrence, maintaining the regional balance of power, and reshaping the security rules in the Persian Gulf," said Mostafa Najafi, a Tehran-based security analyst.
That poses a major obstacle to ending the war, much less resolving the even more complex, long-standing dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
"The atomic issue, because of the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, has been pushed to the side, and in reality, that is in Iran’s interests,” said Rahman Ghahremanpour, an Iran-based analyst. Control of the strait would give Iran leverage if the nuclear talks resume, he added.
The economic fallout from the war has spread worldwide but is particularly acute in Iran.
U.S. and Israeli strikes have pummeled its industrial base. The U.S. blockade has choked off much of its oil exports. Iranians are grappling with triple-digit food inflation. Trump has repeatedly threatened major strikes on civilian infrastructure like water and electricity.
In December, a currency crisis sparked some of the biggest anti-government protests in the 47-year history of the Islamic Republic. Authorities responded with a bloody crackdown in which thousands were killed and tens of thousands detained.
Many in Iran, including those close to its moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian, fear it may go too far.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, who as foreign minister helped negotiate the 2015 nuclear deal, wrote in a recent essay that Iran's achievements in the war had opened “an exceptional window for diplomacy.” But he warned that if it doesn't strike a deal soon, then “economic recovery will be difficult, and the possibility of internal unrest or renewed aggression, especially after the U.S. elections, cannot be ruled out.”
The war has already been marked by surprises.
After the first wave of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Feb. 28 killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials, Trump suggested it would be over in a matter of weeks.
Instead, the conflict has emboldened Iran's leaders and mobilized their supporters. Tehran is using the strait “to show that it has not been defeated," Ghahremanpour said. "It can increase its legitimacy at home.”
But the strategy could also backfire. Iran's resilience has limits and there are concerns that an economic crash could trigger unrest. “Iran cannot continue with this strategy forever, and at a certain point, in reality, it has to reach a deal with America," he said.
But Davari said that for now, Iran can withstand the pressure. "It’s unlikely, despite the difficulties of the economic situation, that Iran will retreat from its positions," he said.
Associated Press reporter Hend Kortam in Cairo contributed.
Krauss has reported from across the Middle East for more than 20 years, including postings in Cairo, Baghdad and Jerusalem. Radjy is a Cairo-based journalist who has reported on Iran for over a decade.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Women walk past a banner showing portraits of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, center, and the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the U.S. and Israel strike on Feb. 28, under a bridge in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People spend time at a beach as commercial vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
