Liberating the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic” because it would be time consuming and difficult, French President Emmanuel Macron said as he shrugged off President Donald Trump’s call for allies to take up responsibility for policing the strategic oil corridor.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in South Korea on Thursday, a stop on his mini-tour of Asian capitals which saw him in Japan yesterday focussing on economic ties and business. Responding to remarks overnight by U.S. President Donald Trump, where he reflected on America’s progress in Iran and called on other countries to put their shoulders to the wheel and help with the effort.
Noting “there are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation”, President Macron rejected the notion out of hand. He said: “It is unrealistic because it would take an inordinate amount of time and would expose anyone crossing the strait to coastal threats from the [IRGC], who possess significant resources, as well as ballistic missiles, [and] a host of other risks.”
The extent to which Iran truly controls the Straits is untested and whatever the threat may have been in the past, it is likely much degraded now after an intense month of U.S. strikes which, as Washington notes, has deliberately targeted Iran’s maritime and missile capabilities. Strikes have specifically sought out Iran’s navy, sea mine factories and magazines, and asymmetric warfare small boat force.
Having said in his Wednesday address that Iran’s air force and navy were “gone” and “in ruins”, President Trump said “we’ve beaten and completely decimated Iran” and that it was now up to the nations of the world that benefit most from the Strait of Hormuz to use their own militaries to keep it open. The President said this could be achieved easily and that, if they actually acted, they wouldn’t do so alone because the U.S. “will be helpful”, and that: “Go to the Strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves. Iran has been essentially decimated, the hard part is done so it should be easy.”
Several nations including European states like France, and Asian states like Japan, have said they would be willing to contribute to a naval coalition to patrol the Strait to ensure the flow of oil, but essentially only once the conflict is over and all fighting is done. President Trump noted this lack of courage in remarks yesterday, when he added: “the problem with the Strait is they could have one terrorist with a machine gun someplace and they’ll say ‘oh it’s not totally clear’.”
President Trump named France, South Korea, Japan, and China as countries with a clear national interest in keeping the Strait of Hormuz — and hence the oil that is transported through it — open for business. Indeed, as noted in a International Energy Agency digest on the Strait, while in normal times around 25 per cent of all oil transported by sea daily passes through this single strategic waterway, 80 per cent of it is destined for Asia.
In 2025, of 20 million barrels of oil exported through the Strait a day, 4.6 million barrels would head to China, followed by 2.1 million to India, and 6.2 million to the rest of Asia. Europe and the Americas were a footnote in comparison, receiving around half a million barrels a day each in 2025.
In separate remarks, President Macron also responded to President Trump making light of an infamous incident last year where press cameras caught the French First Lady, Brigette Macron, apparently slapping him around the face.
Whether it was in anger or in jest was never revealed and the Elysée Palace has always refused comment and decried it as fake news. After President Trump mentioned it in an aside this week, Macron hit back and said the comments were “neither elegant nor up to standard… that’s it… so I’m not going to respond to them, they don’t deserve a response”.