A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Coming up, how seriously do Europeans take President Trump's latest threat to break up NATO? First, though, the U.K. and other nations are looking for ways to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump briefly made threats against Iran to reopen the waterway. When that failed, the president claimed he didn't care and that it was other countries' problem. Now the other countries are considering what to do.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab was following the discussions and is on the line from London. Hi there.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Welcome. So for better or worse, I guess this is essentially a meeting on Zoom. Is that right?
AL-KASSAB: That is right. It was a virtual call. It was hosted by the U.K.'s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper. She was keen to stress that over 40 countries took part, including representatives from European countries, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, but of course, not the U.S. or Israel, the countries that launched the war. Cooper said the rest of the world had been left to deal with the consequences, though, which is why she was organizing this meeting. She said that by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, Iran was hijacking a global shipping route and, she said, holding the global economy hostage.
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YVETTE COOPER: This is hitting the trading routes for Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi, Oman, Iraq. But that means liquid natural gas for Asia, fertilizer for Africa and jet fuel for the world.
AL-KASSAB: And she said that traffic through the strait had plunged from 150 ships a day to between 10 to 20 ships a day. So this meeting was about diplomatic and economic measures that these countries can take, both now and after the fighting stops, to help secure the shipping route. It was not a military meeting, though. The foreign secretary did say that military planners from these same countries would get together next week to think about defensive capabilities, again for securing the strait once the fighting stops.
INSKEEP: OK. President Trump told other countries the other day to take and, quote, "cherish" the strait. Sounds like they're not doing that, or not trying that right away. But what measures are they suggesting?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah, not quite that. They did discuss a range of things - and they were really just discussing them at this point - including putting more diplomatic pressure on Iran, including via the U.N., and rejecting any attempt by Iran to impose tolls on ships passing through. They said they explored the option of sanctions to bear down on Iran if the strait stays closed, but they didn't agree on anything concrete. They also talked about working with the International Maritime Organization to try to help about 20,000 sailors and thousands of ships that are currently stuck in the strait. But Britain's foreign secretary said this is just the first step.
INSKEEP: What are other leaders saying?
AL-KASSAB: Yeah. So we had France's president, Emmanuel Macron, saying yesterday that the idea of using force to reopen the strait - something Trump has suggested - is unrealistic. He said that would leave cargo ships vulnerable to Iranian attacks. He criticized Trump's threats to pull out of NATO, too. Here he is speaking in Seoul yesterday.
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PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON: (Speaking French).
AL-KASSAB: He says that by casting doubt on the U.S. commitment to NATO, Trump is eroding the very substance of the alliance. Now, U.S. allies have repeatedly said they're not going to get involved militarily in the hot phase of the war despite Trump's calls for them to do so.
INSKEEP: OK. Can these other countries, having had their call, get anything done?
AL-KASSAB: Well, yeah. So it is - as well as kind of showing to Trump that they're starting to do something, it's also about looking ahead if the U.S. does unilaterally walk away and they're forced to go it alone and negotiate directly with the Iranians. One analyst I spoke to, Mujtaba Rahman from the risk analysis firm the Eurasia Group, described the meeting as a bit of a Trump management exercise, though. He says that as long as the U.S. and Israel are bombarding Iran, Iran is unlikely to be responsive to any diplomatic outreach from these countries.
INSKEEP: NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab in London, thanks so much.
AL-KASSAB: Thank you, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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