French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot met with his Bahraini counterpart as well as other senior Gulf region officials on March 25 to “share observations” which aim to “maximize the likelihood of the text’s adoption and subsequent implementation,” one of the diplomats said.
French President Emmanuel Macron last month called for the U.N. to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz. France is one of the European countries leading Europe’s response to the Iran crisis via a combination of military pledges — Paris has vowed to send warships to the Strait once fighting has died down — and diplomatic efforts via the United Nations thanks to its permanent seat on the Security Council.
Bahrain has led the push, which aims to get legal cover for an international operation to clear the Strait and coincides with broader talks aimed at building a coalition to secure oil tankers’ passage.
The United Kingdom is hosting a virtual meeting on Thursday with 35 countries that could be part of a coalition of the willing to clear the Strait.
A fourth senior EU diplomat compared the diplomatic push to a previous U.N.-led initiative to allow Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea. The so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative ended up winning Moscow’s support.
Non-Security Council members such as Bahrain can and often do draft such resolutions. But in order to be brought to a vote, the draft would need to be adopted and proposed by a Security Council member such as France or the United States. It would need the support of all five permanent members of the Security Council, including Russia, to be adopted — which one of the diplomats said would be a difficult obstacle to overcome given Russia’s support for Iran.
“Why would they?” the diplomat said regarding Russia’s potential support for the Bahraini resolution.