Netherlands ready to help Americans keep Strait of Hormuz open
(B2) The Dutch Minister of Defense, Hans Hillen, confirmed this at the bend of a corridor in Munich, “the Netherlands is ready, in principle, to help the United States in the event of an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. "" When I was in Washington last month, the Americans asked me if we would be ready with our fighters to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open”, he tells our colleagues from NRC Handelsblad,. " I actually said yes. But, to myself, I was scratching my head right away, because we only have six minesweepers. When I took office as minister, we had ten. As part of the defense reductions, four ships will be out of service. »
NB: the art of politics being to foresee everything, the Americans have begun to consult the various allies in a concrete way on the contribution that they could bring to an operation carried out, in coalition, in the Gulf. High risk mission given the Iranian presence, but strategic mission, because it is a question of keeping the oil tap of the Gulf open. The show of force of the six ships, mainly American, helped by a British and a French, a few days ago (read: The La Motte-Piquet in the Strait of Hormuz with an American task force) was therefore not as fortuitous as the General Staff of the Armed Forces wanted to assert.
Well! Heading for a naval brawl unlike any since the Falklands? Without being there, it still smells scorched. And if, as you remember, the art of politics is to foresee everything, who knows what urgent reaction plans are being made in the staffs?!