State Department launches diplomatic effort to open Strait of Hormuz

The State Department is launching a diplomatic effort to free up transit in the Strait of Hormuz, asking partners worldwide to sign on to an initiative meant to identify safe corridors for commercial and other vessels to pass through the chokepoint.

It is not clear how many countries have been asked to participate, or whether any have signed on.

Details on the initiative are scarce, but officials stress the “Maritime Freedom Construct,” or MFC, is not intended to supplant other efforts to secure the strait, including one initiated recently by the French and British governments.

“The State-led component, based in Washington, D.C., will serve as the diplomatic operations hub, uniting partners and the commercial shipping industry,” according to a State Department official. “It will provide a platform to coordinate diplomatic actions and socialize and align economic measures designed to impose costs on Iran for disrupting maritime security.”

The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

President Trump has criticized NATO countries for not helping to reopen the strait to shipping traffic, then offering to help only “now that the Hormuz Strait situation is nearly over,” according to comments the president made in Phoenix nearly two weeks ago.