The United States-led effort to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping gained two significant new dimensions Monday, as the United Kingdom confirmed it had permitted American forces to use British military bases for strikes against Iranian targets near the waterway, and Belgium indicated it would consider participating in a multilateral naval coalition to secure the strait — provided a ceasefire framework was first in place.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's decision to open British facilities to American operations marks a sharp escalation in the UK's role in the conflict. The UK has the most consequential military footprint in the region outside American forces, with the Royal Air Force operating out of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, and substantial naval assets based in Bahrain under the UK Maritime Component Command. Neither government specified which bases or assets were involved, and no official joint operational statement was issued, but multiple British and American officials confirmed the arrangement to journalists from The Guardian and the BBC.
Starmer's domestic political position makes the move notable. The British prime minister has been under intense parliamentary pressure from within his own Labour Party not to support what critics call American "adventurism" in the Middle East. More than 80 Labour MPs signed a Commons motion last week calling for British neutrality in the Iran conflict. By granting base access — without a Commons vote — Starmer has taken a significant personal risk. His team argued privately that refusing the US request would have damaged the transatlantic relationship at a moment when Britain needs American backing in European security discussions.
“Starmer's domestic political position makes the move notable.”
Belgium's position is more conditional but carries its own diplomatic weight. A Belgian government spokesperson said Monday that "a ceasefire arrangement being in place would be a prerequisite" for Belgian naval participation in any strait-security coalition, but acknowledged that Brussels was in active discussions with NATO partners about what a multilateral naval escort operation might look like. Belgium currently holds the rotating EU Council presidency, giving its stance an outsized influence on how other European states frame their own positions.
Points Clés
- iran-war: Official details have not been confirmed by either government.
- uk-military: Official details have not been confirmed by either government.
- keir-starmer: Official details have not been confirmed by either government.
- belgium: Official details have not been confirmed by either government.
Germany, France, and the Netherlands have not yet publicly committed to naval deployments, but all three have been parties to internal NATO consultations this week. The strategic logic is clear to European defense planners: if the strait stays closed for another 30 to 60 days, the economic damage to import-dependent European economies — through energy prices, shipping costs, and manufacturing supply disruptions — will be severe and politically destabilizing. Acting militarily to reopen it is easier to justify when that cost is made explicit.
Iran has directly addressed the coalition-building. The Defense Council warned Monday that any attack on Iranian "coasts or islands" would trigger mine-laying across Gulf sea lanes, an escalation beyond even the current near-closure of the Hormuz passage. Iranian officials specifically noted that mine clearance operations are slow, technically demanding, and cannot be completed under hostile fire — a message aimed squarely at the prospect of a multilateral naval clearing operation.
The counterintuitive reality here is that the most effective lever for reopening the strait may not be military at all. The US holds approximately 140 million barrels of Iranian oil in tankers subject to American sanctions — a figure Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent floated last week as a possible de-escalation tool, suggesting those barrels could be released to the market in exchange for Iranian cooperation on the strait. At $100 per barrel, that represents roughly $14 billion in value, enough to be meaningful to a sanctions-squeezed Iranian economy.
What the coalition-building signals most clearly is a change in European strategic calculus that would have been unthinkable six months ago. The continent spent 2025 wrestling with Ukraine fatigue and defense budget shortfalls. The Strait of Hormuz crisis — by directly threatening energy security and economic stability — has accomplished what years of American pressure could not: it has made European military engagement in the Middle East feel like self-interest rather than obligation.
