LONDON —- Leading European nations, Japan, and Canada issued a joint statement on Thursday saying they were ready to join appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz and would take steps to stabilize energy markets.

This is the full text of the statement from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada:

We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces.

We express our deep concern about the escalating conflict. We call on Iran to cease immediately its threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the Strait to commercial shipping, and to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 2817.

Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principle of international law, including under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable.

Consistent with UNSC Resolution 2817, we emphasize that such interference with international shipping and the disruption of global energy supply chains constitute a threat to international peace and security. In this regard, we call for an immediate comprehensive moratorium on attacks on civilian infrastructure, including oil and gas installations.

We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning.

We welcome the International Energy Agency decision to authorise a coordinated release of strategic petroleum reserves. We will take other steps to stabilise energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output.

We will also work to provide support for the most affected nations, including through the United Nations and the IFIs (International Financial Institutions).

Maritime security and freedom of navigation benefit all countries. We call on all states to respect international law and uphold the fundamental principles of international prosperity and security. — Reuters

TAIPEI — China poses a pressing threat given its military build-up continues unabated and effective deterrence is needed to make sure any attack would be very risky for Beijing, Taiwan Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Friday.

China does not currently plan to invade Taiwan in 2027 and seeks to control the island without the use of force, the US intelligence community said on Wednesday, striking a measured tone on one of the world’s biggest potential flashpoints.

Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taiwan, which it views as its own territory, with frequent military drills. Taiwan’s democratically elected government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

Speaking about the US report, Mr. Koo said China has neither given up the option of using force against Taiwan nor slowed military spending.

“So its military expansion, and the threat it poses to us, remain very serious,” he told reporters at parliament.

“We need to make it feel that any plan to attack Taiwan would carry a high degree of risk: in other words, to make its assessment of a successful invasion very low.”

If China continues expanding its military while Taiwan’s defense capabilities do not improve, the likelihood of an attack would rise, Mr. Koo said.

“On the other hand, if our defense capabilities continue to improve and our deterrence grows stronger, then its calculation regarding an attack on Taiwan will decrease. That would have the effect of pushing back such a date again and again.”

China’s foreign ministry on Thursday said that Taiwan is an internal issue and that the US needs to “stop hyping up the ‘China threat’ theory”.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has proposed $40 billion in extra defense spending, but the plans have been slow to work their way through parliament where the opposition, which has the most seats, has complained they are too vague and that its lawmakers cannot be expected to sign “blank cheques”.

Mr. Lai on Thursday visited Taiwan’s new domestically developed submarine, which is still undergoing sea trials, as well as one of its two existing combat-capable submarines, bought from the Netherlands in the 1980s.

Mr. Koo said one of those two Dutch-built submarines had already completed an upgrade, with the upgrade for the other to be done by the end of the year.

“These two submarines will significantly enhance our combat capabilities,” he said. — Reuters

DOHA/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM — Israel launched a fresh wave of attacks on Iran on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump told it not to repeat its strikes on Iranian natural gas infrastructure, which sharply escalated the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The conflict has killed thousands of people, spread to neighboring nations and hit the global economy since the United States and Israel launched strikes on February 28, after talks about Tehran’s nuclear program failed to yield a deal.

“The IDF has just begun a wave of strikes against the infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime in the heart of Tehran,” a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces said, without providing details.

Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates said they were dealing with missile attacks in the early hours of Friday, following days of Iranian strikes on regional energy infrastructure that has roiled global markets.

Energy prices jumped on Thursday after Iran responded to an Israeli attack on a major gas field by hitting Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.

Saudi Arabia’s main port on the Red Sea, where it has been able to divert some exports to avoid Iran’s closure of the Gulf’s exit point, the Strait of Hormuz, was also attacked on Thursday.

But oil prices fell on Friday as leading European nations and Japan offered to help secure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil supplies, and the US outlined moves to boost oil output.

The strikes on regional energy facilities underscored Iran’s continued ability to exact a heavy price for the US-Israeli campaign, and the limits of air defenses in protecting the Gulf’s most valuable and strategic energy assets.

Mr. Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among his core voters ahead of November’s midterm elections, has lashed out at allies who have responded cautiously to his demands that they help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world’s oil.

He said he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to repeat the attack on energy infrastructure.

“I told him, ‘Don’t do that’, and he won’t do that,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.

Mr. Netanyahu later said Israel had acted alone in the bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field and confirmed that Mr. Trump had asked Israel to hold off on such attacks.

Iran is being “decimated” and no longer had the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles, but a revolution in the country would require a “ground component,” he said, without elaborating.

ENERGY CRISIS ESCALATES
With no end in sight to the conflict, and the threat of a global “oil shock” growing by the day, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan issued a joint statement expressing “our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.

They also promised “other steps to stabilize energy markets, including working with certain producing nations to increase output”.

There was little indication of any immediate move. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated that any contribution to securing the strait would come only after hostilities ended.

The resistance by major US allies to becoming involved in the war reflects scepticism over a conflict European leaders have said has unclear objectives that they did not seek and over which they have little control.

Israel’s bombing of Iran’s South Pars gas field, which Mr. Trump said the US had not known about, suggested gaps in coordination of strategy and war aims between the main protagonists.

Adding to the confusion around the attack, three Israeli officials said the operation had taken place in consultation with the United States, but was unlikely to be repeated.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the House intelligence committee that US and Israeli goals differed: “…the Israeli government has been focused on disabling the Iranian leadership. The president has stated that his objectives are to destroy Iran’s ballistic missiles launching capability, their ballistic missile production capability, and their navy.”

‘A NEW STAGE IN THE WAR’
Iran’s military said strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure had led to “a new stage in the war” in which it had attacked energy facilities linked to the United States.

“If strikes (on Iran’s energy facilities) happen again, further attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not stop until it is completely destroyed,” Iranian military spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari said, according to state media.

QatarEnergy’s CEO told Reuters the Iranian attacks had knocked out a sixth of Qatar’s LNG export capacity, worth $20 billion a year, and that repairs would take three to five years.

Israeli media reported that an Iranian strike hit oil facilities in Israel’s port of Haifa, causing damage but no casualties. — Reuters