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News Analysis
A British-French plan to secure the Strait of Hormuz would give the continent a role. But Tehran and Washington are still calling the shots.
April 21, 2026, 10:32 a.m. ET
When President Emmanuel Macron of France welcomed the leaders of Britain, Germany and Italy to the Élysée Palace in Paris last Friday, it looked as if Europe had finally found a worthy role to play in the Iran war.
They had gathered for a meeting of nearly 50 countries to discuss how to reestablish freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, a complex military mission that plays to Europe’s self-image as a guardian of international law in an increasingly lawless time.
Yet after a tense weekend, Europe once again finds itself where it was when the war broke out 52 days ago: watching from the sidelines.
Iran and the United States still call the shots in the strait, a reality underscored even as the European leaders rallied their counterparts in Paris. Midway through the meeting, in Tehran, the Iranian foreign minister announced that his country had reopened the waterway, prompting President Trump to exult on social media that the strait was “READY FOR BUSINESS.”
The two combatants then promptly undercut those statements, with the United States seizing an Iranian-flagged vessel trying to transit the strait while Iran fired warning shots at several ships, including one from France. The strait remains closed, stalling Europe’s postwar plans.
“This has been quite an awful time for Europe,” said Célia Belin, head of the Paris office of the European Council on Foreign Relations. “As long as the Europeans are not willing to play the brutal game, using force to achieve their objectives, they will not matter as much.”
