According to Sky News' Deborah Haynes, the French authorities have, since the start of the tanker crisis in the Persian Gulf, to bring together European nations to implement a European naval initiative aimed at securing maritime traffic in the region. Thus, bilateral consultations would have been carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the European chancelleries, so as to be able to organize a naval force independent of the American coalition present in the Persian Gulf, even before the appeal launched 3 years ago. weeks by Jeremy Hunt, then British Foreign Secretary. According to the journalist, it is possible that announcements will be made to this effect during the G7 meetings in Biarritz from August 24 to 26, 2019.
This information would explain the discretion of Europeans on the issue since the start of the crisis. A purely European initiative, led by France, would in fact make it possible to dissociate itself from the American coalition aimed at putting, in the words of President Trump, maximum pressure on Iran, to give in to Washington's demands. In fact, that said, the exact opposite happened, and Tehran's positions have on the contrary become radicalized since the American strengthening.
But if Paris and the majority of European capitals support the 2015 agreement with Iran, this does not affect the problem of resources available to the navies of the old continent, to deploy a naval force over time, in an environment which risks, at any moment, bursting into flames. There is no question of sending ships that do not have real defensive capabilities in the Gulf, or are served by crews that do not have experience of this type of risky mission. However, this is precisely what is lacking in Europe today, especially since several navies already supply other theaters, in the Eastern Mediterranean, the North Sea or the Baltic.
That said, if Paris managed to set up such an operation, with sufficient resources to last if necessary, it would constitute an important step for Europe towards the idea of ​​Strategic Autonomy, dear to France.