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Iran Conflict 2026
13APR

UK leads 40-nation rival coalition against blockade

3 min read
11:20UTC

The US blockade attracted only two Gulf host-base states, while the UK assembled 40 nations pursuing the opposite strategy: reopening Hormuz through minesweeping rather than closing it through interdiction.

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Key takeaway

The blockade coalition is smaller than the coalition opposing it.

UK, Germany, and Australia refused the blockade. Only UAE and Bahrain joined, both host-base states with US military installations on their soil and limited room to decline. Trump had claimed "other countries will be involved." The blockade coalition is smaller than the coalition opposing it.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "It is vital that we get the strait open and fully open." A NATO official disclosed the UK is leading a separate 40-nation coalition planning to reopen Hormuz through minesweeping, commercial shipping reassurance, and diplomatic pressure 1. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, and South Korea are part of it .

Two parallel Western strategies now compete over the same waterway: the US blockading Iranian ports unilaterally, the UK leading a multilateral reopening effort. France and Japan present the starkest case. Both paid Tehran's tolls in early April; both joined the UK coalition; both now appear on the list of vessels Trump ordered interdicted. Senator Mark Warner captured the strategic gap: "I don't understand how blockading the strait is somehow going to push the Iranians into opening it" .

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The United States is trying to close Iranian ports using its navy. The United Kingdom , one of America's closest allies , assembled 40 other countries to do the opposite: reopen the Strait of Hormuz through minesweeping and diplomacy. These are not two complementary approaches. They are directly opposed. The US wants ships blocked from reaching Iran; the UK wants all ships free to pass. Two incompatible strategies are now operating over the same waterway, led by the same side in the same alliance. This is unusual enough to represent a genuine crisis in the Western alliance, a genuine rupture in the Western alliance, not a mere disagreement about tactics. To make it more complicated: France and Japan , both members of the UK coalition , have ships that paid Iran's toll, making them potential targets under Trump's separate interdiction order. They are simultaneously trying to reopen Hormuz and potentially subject to seizure by the US.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The UK's counter-coalition reflects three structural divergences from the US position that accumulated across the war's 45 days.

First, European energy dependency on Gulf supplies is existentially more acute than US dependency following America's shale revolution. Germany imports 98% of its oil; the UK, despite North Sea production, imports significant crude for refinery capacity reasons. The blockade damages European consumers more than American ones.

Second, the legal framework matters more to European governments constitutionally and electorally. A blockade without a UNSC resolution or an Article 5 invocation lacks the parliamentary authorisation most European coalition members would need to participate. The UK's minesweeping mission is framed as freedom of navigation , which is legally defensible domestically.

Third, France and Japan's toll-paying ships are potential US interdiction targets (ID:2125 pattern). These states cannot join the US coalition without authorising the seizure of their own commercial vessels. Joining the UK coalition is the only available alternative.

What could happen next?
  • Precedent

    Two incompatible Western strategies operating simultaneously over the same waterway sets a precedent for alliance fragmentation that will outlast this conflict: other contested waterways (Taiwan Strait, South China Sea) will be assessed in light of whether the Western alliance can maintain operational unity.

    Long term · 0.82
  • Risk

    UK minesweeping assets and US blockade enforcement vessels operate in the same chokepoint without coordination protocols, creating daily risk of incident that would force both governments to define their operational relationship publicly.

    Immediate · 0.75
  • Consequence

    France and Japan, members of the UK coalition and potential US toll-interdiction targets, are in an operationally untenable position: their flag vessels are simultaneously protected by the UK coalition framework and targeted by US presidential order.

    Immediate · 0.88
Sources:Euronews / Al Jazeera·Euronews / Al Jazeera·CBS News liveblog
Mentions:Kuwait →Prima →Japan →Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft →Washington →South Korea →Strait of Hormuz →European Council on Foreign Relations →RUSI →United States →IMF →Italy →Keir Starmer →United Kingdom →Germany →Russia →United Arab Emirates (UAE) →Bahrain →NATO →Friedrich Merz →Senator Mark Warner →Iraq →Iran →European Council →Royal United Services Institute →France →Suez Crisis →Netherlands →Tehran →Operation Earnest Will →
First Reported In

Update #67 · Trump blockades Iran on a tweet

Euronews / Al Jazeera· 13 Apr 2026
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