France and Britain will outline plans for a multinational maritime mission in the Strait of Hormuz at talks between NATO and gulf Arab foreign ministers on Tuesday, but diplomats say Iran's rejection of the initiative makes it unlikely to break the deadlock over the vital waterway.
The meeting on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara will bring together ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates following weeks of tensions in the strategically important waterway despite an interim US-Iran peace deal.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) said early on Tuesday that a tanker was struck east of Oman's Limah. Axios reported earlier that Iran's Revolutionary Guards fired at least two missiles at commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
"In the gulf region, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates were directly targeted by Iranian attacks this spring," Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said before the meeting.
"Their stability and ours are inextricably linked. This goes far beyond the Strait of Hormuz alone, however crucial it may be for Europe’s energy security," he added.
Iran began blockading the waterway after the United States and Israel launched military action against it in February. Despite the mid-June interim accord, passage remains difficult, keeping shipping costs and global supply chains under pressure.
NATO allies have sought to avoid direct involvement in the conflict, instead focusing on plans outside the alliance to reopen the strait, through which around a fifth of the world's oil supply normally passes.
On arrival in Ankara, US President Donald Trump said he might not have attended the summit had it not been hosted by his friend, President Tayyip Erdogan, while criticising NATO allies for what he said was their reluctance to support him in his conflict with Iran.
"We weren’t treated well because we did something in Iran. We don’t need anybody’s help. I didn’t even want their help. But before I asked, they said they wouldn’t be there," he said, pointing the finger at Britain, Italy, France and Germany.
European nations have said they do not want to be drawn into the war, which was launched without consulting them, but are ready to help secure the strait after the war.
France and Britain have led efforts to build a coalition among roughly a dozen countries to guarantee safe passage through the strait once tensions ease or the conflict is resolved, though any long-term arrangement would ultimately require Iranian acquiescence.
Iran has repeatedly opposed any foreign military presence in the area, using the issue as leverage in its negotiations with Washington, and last week dismissed remarks by France's President Emmanuel Macron suggesting the mission would proceed.
A European diplomat said Macron, who was set to arrive in Ankara after becoming the first European head of state to visit neighbouring Syria, was flexing his muscles so that Europe could look like a loyal ally in front of Trump during the summit.
"But in the end as long as Iran doesn’t give a green light everyone is too scared," the diplomat said.
Two other diplomats said the meeting on Tuesday would be symbolic.
Several NATO allies have deployed minehunters, warships and support vessels in the surrounding region.
Diplomats say Paris and London hope to have an initial mission in the Gulf of Oman, an adjacent waterway linking the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz and bordered by Iran, Oman and the UAE.
"The Sultanate of Oman has agreed to work with the United Kingdom and France to ensure that its sovereign territorial waters are safe for navigation," said a Franco-British joint statement on July 3.
(Reporting by John Irish, editing by Andrei Khalip, Alexandra Hudson)