Foreign
GERMAN Defence Minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said on Wednesday her country has not made a final decision on the U.S.
She said that the request by the U.S. to take part in a mission to safeguard commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, but signalled it was unlikely to do so.
“We are examining these requests in close coordination with Britain and France,’’ Kramp-Karrenbauer said after a meeting with NATO Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, in Brussels.
But the German politician, considered a frontrunner to succeed Chancellor Angel Merkel, emphasized that unlike the U.S., Germany and other European states want to hold on to the Iran nuclear deal.
Berlin is setting everything on reaching a diplomatic and peaceful solution in the conflict with Iran.
Britain and the U.S. are seeking to establish a mission to prevent Iran from seizing further oil tankers.
After Tehran impounded the British flagged Stena Impero and the Panama flagged MT Riah in mid-July in the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic shipping route between Iran and Oman.
Military representatives from London and Washington are set to come together for a meeting on the proposed mission in Bahrain on Wednesday.
Germany is among the countries the U.S. has asked to get involved, though Berlin has indicated its reticence.
Kramp-Karrenbauer’s trip to Brussels was her first time abroad since she took over as defence minister from Ursula von der Leyen, who will become European Commission president in November.
-NAN
BE
– July 31, 2019 @ 16:25 GMT /
Tags: New German defence minister talks Gulf crisis with NATO’s Stoltenberg
