The Hormuz Crisis Shows U.S. Alliances Are Weak
Germany won’t back a U.S. mission to Hormuz, France hesitates, and only Boris Johnson’s U.K. is all for it.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards patrolling around the British-flagged tanker Stena Impero.
Photographer: Hasan Shirvani/AFP/Getty Images
The matter of a naval mission to the Persian Gulf is a test of whether the U.S. – or at least Donald Trump – has any serious allies in Europe other than, perhaps, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Germany, at least, isn’t on board.
The administration has formally asked Germany, France and the U.K. to join a naval mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz and combat Iranian aggression. In Berlin, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Tamara Sternberg-Greller added a taunt: “Members of the German government have been clear that freedom of navigation should be protected. Our question is, protected by whom?”