The UK\u2019s actions in the Gulf should be the basis for any US judgment of the country\u2019s value rather than Donald Trump\u2019s social media posts, Britain\u2019s defence secretary has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a conference in London, John Healey said the UK\u2019s recent efforts \u201cspoke for themselves\u201d, as Keir Starmer flew home after a trip that included discussing how to keep the strait of Hormuz open with Donald Trump, as well as meeting leaders in Saudi Arabia<\/a>, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.<\/p>\n \u201cEven in this current conflict, the basing permissions that we in the UK have agreed with the US have been invaluable to their military operations,\u201d Healey said, adding: \u201cIf we focus on our actions rather than just simply the exchange of words and social media posts, then the fundamentals for me remain.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the ceasefire announced by Trump late on Tuesday, which Starmer said countries in the region believed was \u201cfragile\u201d<\/a>, the UK led a call of military planners from 35 nations on ways to secure the strait if there was peace, including the removal of Iranian mines.<\/p>\n Speaking to broadcasters in Doha, Starmer gave details of his call with the US president on Thursday evening. \u201cI had a discussion with President Trump last night and set out to him the views of the region here. These Gulf states are the neighbours of Iran, and therefore, if the ceasefire is to hold \u2013 and we hope it will \u2013 it has to involve them,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have very strong views on the strait of Hormuz. We spent most of the time on the call talking about the practical plan that\u2019s going to be needed to get navigation through the strait and the role that the UK is playing.\u201d<\/p>\n As well as ensuring the sea route is safe, Starmer has stressed<\/a> the need to avoid the potential scenario of Iran charging levies on ships passing through. Earlier this week Trump mooted the idea of a \u201cjoint venture\u201d between the US and Iran to set tolls.<\/p>\n Setting out his talks with the various Gulf leaders, Starmer said they shared this view, and were concerned about the ceasefire, which is under threat from continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and Iran warning it could retaliate.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, the discussion moved very quickly to the ceasefire, a sense that it\u2019s fragile, that more work is needed, that the strait of Hormuz has to be part of the solution, a very strong sense that there can\u2019t be tolling or restrictions on that navigation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump has expressed anger at what he believes has been a lack of support for the attacks on Iran<\/a> from fellow Nato members, and has again threatened the future of the alliance. Reports<\/a> have emerged that Washington was planning to audit Nato members to decide if anyone should face punishment for their perceived lack of support during the war in Iran.<\/p>\n Starmer said he agreed it was important for European Nato members to \u201cdo more\u201d, but emphasised that the alliance was \u201cin America\u2019s interests\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very strong supporters of Nato and I\u2019ve been making the argument for some considerable time that we need to do more,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the single most effective military alliance the world has ever known.<\/p>\n \u201cNato is a defensive alliance, which for decades has kept us much safer than we would otherwise have been. So we\u2019re strong supporters of Nato. We\u2019ll always be strong supporters of Nato.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s actions in the Gulf should be the basis for any US judgment of the country\u2019s value…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-523454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}