France’s Macron says military operation to ‘liberate’ Strait of Hormuz ‘unrealistic’

French President Emmanuel Macron leaves Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, South Korea on Thursday.

Photo: via Reuters French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that a military operation to liberate the Strait of Hormuz is “unrealistic”, while lamenting Donald Trump’s differing daily statements on the Iran war and Nato. “There are those who advocate for the liberation of the Strait of Hormuz by force through a military operation, a position sometimes expressed by the United States,” Macron said during a visit to South Korea. “I say sometimes because it has varied, it is never the option we have chosen and we consider it unrealistic,” he said.

Macron said such an operation would take excessive time and expose those crossing the strait to “coastal threats”, particularly from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards “who possess significant resources as well as ballistic missiles”. “This can only be done in concert with Iran,” the French leader added, calling first for a ceasefire and a return to negotiations.

The Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil, has been virtually paralysed for weeks by the Middle East war, pushing up prices for crude and related products worldwide.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have vowed to keep the strait shut to the country’s “enemies” while Trump has made reopening it a condition for a ceasefire.

A passer-by in Tokyo walks past a television screen showing a live broadcast of US President Donald Trump delivering a national address on Wednesday.

Photo: AFP US President Trump in a prime-time White House address on Wednesday again said that countries that receive oil through the strait “must take care of that passage”.

In earlier comments he singled out European and Asian countries. “You know, we only have 45,000 soldiers in harm’s way over there, right next to a nuclear force.

Let South Korea do it,” Trump said, referring to North Korea. “Let Japan do it.

They get 90 per cent of their oil from the Strait.

Let China do it.

Let them all do it.

What the hell are we doing it for?” The US has around 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Macron, who landed in South Korea on Thursday after visiting Japan, also expressed frustration at Trump’s statements on the conflict. “You have to be serious.

When you want to be serious, you don’t say the opposite every day of what you said the day before.

And perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day,” Macron said.

The French president also said that Trump – who on Wednesday poked fun at Macron’s marriag

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