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Chancellor Friedrich Merz plans to present a concrete offer for German participation in a possible military mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz at talks in Paris on Friday.
According to the proposal, the Bundeswehr is to provide minehunting boats, an escort ship and reconnaissance aircraft after the end of hostilities, on the condition that certain conditions are met.
The mission would specifically include mine clearance and maritime reconnaissance, as well as long-range surveillance of the sea area, according to sources at the German Press Agency (dpa).
The Bundeswehr currently has eight minehunting boats and two mine-diving boats but how many of these could be deployed is not clear yet. The minehunting boats, which are more than 50 metres long, are usually manned by a crew of 42 soldiers, who can be reinforced by mine divers if necessary.
Merz is travelling to Paris on Friday for an international meeting hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is also expected to attend. Other potential supporters of a mission to secure the Strait of Hormuz are to be connected via video link.
Strict conditions
Following a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Berlin, Merz made it clear that a possible mission would be subject to strict conditions.
Merz added any German participation in a mission to secure the strait could happen only after “at the very least a provisional ceasefire” as well as approval by the government in Berlin and parliament.
“We are still a long way from that,” he said.
According to a report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, the navy could also use its logistics base in Djibouti for maritime reconnaissance missions.
The base in east Africa is considered to be in a strategically favourable location for missions in the region.
In addition, it is being considered to relieve NATO partners in the North Atlantic in order to free up their forces for a possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz.
Traffic through the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transited before the war, has been almost completely blocked since the Iran war started with US-Israeli air strikes on 28 February.
That has sent energy prices spiking around the world, with the International Energy Agency chief warning on Thursday that Europe only has “maybe six weeks or so of jet fuel left,” if supplies remain blocked.
Additional sources • AFP