France is sending a dozen naval vessels into the Eastern Mediterranean, the Red Sea and possibly the Strait of Hormuz in support of regional allies.
President Emmanuel Macron revealed the build-up of an international defensive mission to escort commercial ships on Monday.
“We are in the process of setting up a purely defensive, purely escort mission, which must be prepared together with both European and non-European states,” Mr Macron said after meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The mission's purpose will be “to allow, as soon as possible after the most intense phase of the conflict has ended, the escort of container ships and tankers to gradually reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Macron said.
“This is essential for international trade, but also for the flow of gas and oil, which must be able to leave this region again,” he added. Some 20 per cent of the world's oil supply uses the strait.
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