French warship moves towards Hormuz for possible defensive mission

A French aircraft carrier is heading south of the Suez Canal and into the Red Sea in preparation for a possible defensive mission aimed at restoring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategically critical waterway that has been effectively blocked amid the US-Israel war on Iran.

The French Ministry of Armed Forces said on Wednesday the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle was en route to the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s traded oil transited prior to the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are leading a multinational mission towards restoring freedom of navigation in the strait, which they say would be entirely defensive and deployed only once the war ended.

“[It] may help restore confidence among shipowners and insurers,” Macron said on X. “It remains distinct from the parties at war.”

Macron, who spoke with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday, said he also intends to raise the matter with United States President Donald Trump.

“A return to calm in the Strait will help advance negotiations on nuclear issues, ballistic matters, and the regional situation,” Macron wrote.

“Europeans … will play their part.”

France is framing the mission as a win-win solution for Iran and the US in an effort to incentivise them to agree.

“What we are proposing is ⁠that Iran gains passage for its ships through the strait and in return commits to negotiating with the Americans on issues of nuclear materials, missiles, and the region, and we propose that the Americans, for their part, lift their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and, in return, obtain Iran’s commitment to negotiations,” a French presidency official ⁠told the AFP news agency.

The announcement comes as Tehran says it is reviewing a US proposal that Trump says could bring the war to an end.

Trump signalled progress in the negotiations on Wednesday, but at the same time threatened to resume bombing if Tehran did not accept the US plan.

Iran played down reports that an agreement was close, saying it had yet to present its response to Pakistani mediators.

Trump has frequently played up the prospect of an agreement that would end the war, but the two sides remain at odds over a variety of issues, ranging from Iran’s nuclear programme to its control of the strait.

The Reuters news agency, citing a Pakistani source and another person briefed on the mediation, reported that the two sides were close to agreeing on a one-page memorandum to formally end the conflict.

US media outlet Axios also said the two sides were “getting close” to an agreement on a memorandum, in which Iran would agree not to develop a nuclear weapon and halt enrichment of uranium for at least 12 years, it said.

The US would lift sanctions and release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets, and both sides would agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days of signing.

The spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmaeil Baghaei, said Tehran has yet to provide its response to the US proposal and that “the investigation into the exchanged texts is ongoing”.