Germany Says 'Very Skeptical' about US Mission for Strait of Hormuz

The United States has proposed stepping up efforts to safeguard the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, at a time of heightened tension between‌ Washington and Tehran. About a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the strait.

The US had formally asked Germany to join France and Britain in a mission to secure the strait, the US embassy in Berlin said on Tuesday.

“I’m very skeptical about that, and I think that’s a skepticism that many others share,” Scholz told ZDF television, according to Reuters.

Scholz said it was important to avoid a military escalation in the region and that such a mission carried the risk of being dragged into an even bigger conflict.

“That’s why I think this is not a good idea,” he said.

There is considerable opposition among Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition, to getting involved in a US-led mission.

Asked whether the coalition parties shared the same view on the US request, Scholz said, “Yes, that’s my impression.”

Washington has lately adopted a quasi-warlike posture against Tehran, and intensified its provocative military moves in the Middle East, among them the June 20 incursion of advanced US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk into Iranian airspace over territorial waters off the coastal province of Hormozgan.

The UK has also joined the US in fueling tensions with Iran by seizing an Iranian-owned supertanker in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4 in an apparent act of “maritime piracy.”