Defense leaders will gather in London next week to discuss deploying warships, minesweepers and drones to protect commercial traffic as Washington continues negotiations with Iran and Gulf states pursue alternative oil routes.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The United States and United Kingdom will convene defense officials from allied nations in London next week as they seek to build an international coalition capable of protecting commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The planned conference will bring together defense ministers and senior military leaders from Western countries, including U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, according to details provided by European diplomatic sources.
Washington is expected to ask participating governments to contribute military equipment and personnel to a coordinated maritime-security operation. Possible deployments include naval vessels, minesweepers and unmanned aircraft that could monitor shipping corridors and respond to Iranian threats.
“The US wants to build on discussions that the U.K. and France had with multiple countries in recent months about a potential international coalition for the Strait of Hormuz,” Axios reported.
The initiative follows nearly two weeks of U.S. strikes against Iranian military positions along the waterway. American forces began conducting near-daily operations after peace negotiations between Washington and Tehran collapsed, targeting sites believed to support attacks on tankers and other commercial vessels.
Before the war, approximately 20% of global oil and natural-gas exports traveled through the Strait of Hormuz. Its importance to international energy markets has made restoring safe and reliable passage a priority for the United States and its allies.
No Iranian attack on commercial shipping had been reported in the previous four days. U.S. officials said American military operations had eliminated Iran’s ability to launch further attacks in the strait, although the planned coalition indicates Washington wants a longer-term security structure rather than relying exclusively on continued strikes.
The proposed international deployment and recent military developments were highlighted in an online report about the Hormuz security effort.
Diplomatic contacts with Iran have continued alongside preparations for the London conference. President Donald Trump said Friday that the discussions were becoming increasingly substantive but cautioned that an agreement was not guaranteed and would not be rushed for political reasons before the midterm elections.
“We are talking to them,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason, but we are talking to them right now,” he continued.
“I think they are being by far the most serious that we’ve seen. But that doesn’t mean we get there.”
Trump said “sorta everybody” in his administration was participating in the negotiations, specifically naming Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Video of the president’s comments on the Iran talks circulated Friday.
The international effort to preserve shipping through Hormuz comes as Gulf oil producers accelerate plans to reduce their dependence on the passage altogether. Regional governments are advancing new pipelines that would redirect crude to terminals on the Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and Mediterranean.
“At least seven major pipeline projects are under construction, in the planning stage or being discussed as possibilities, according to government officials, oil companies and analysts,” the Associated Press reported. “The war has been a wake-up call for Gulf oil producers, who are determined to become less dependent on a transit point that hugs Iran’s coast.”
The multibillion-dollar projects could begin operating by 2027 and eventually redirect millions of barrels of oil away from Hormuz. They would provide Gulf nations with alternative export routes during future military confrontations or disruptions to tanker traffic.
Those routes would still carry significant security risks. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have attacked at least two tankers in the Red Sea in recent days, while overland pipelines can be struck by missiles and drones.
Even with those vulnerabilities, Gulf producers increasingly believe that concentrating exports through one narrow passage beside Iran is “no longer a prudent long-term strategy,” according to Victoria Grabenwöger, senior research analyst at Kpler.
The pipeline expansion would primarily protect crude-oil exports. It would not provide a comparable alternative for liquefied natural gas, which must be transported aboard specialized ships.
Approximately 20% of the world’s LNG supply, most of it originating in Qatar, passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war. That leaves global natural-gas markets exposed to renewed disruption even if Gulf states succeed in redirecting much of their oil through new pipelines.
The London conference will therefore address an immediate security problem that infrastructure projects alone cannot solve. While regional producers seek long-term alternatives, the United States and Britain are attempting to assemble enough allied military support to keep the existing waterway open and protect the energy shipments that continue to depend on it.
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