France says it drafted UNSC resolution to open up Hormuz

PARIS, France — France has drafted a UN Security Council resolution on setting up an international mission to restore movement in the Strait of Hormuz and could submit it if conditions are right, its foreign ministry says, as Washington struggles to bring to a vote a text Russia and China may say is biased against Tehran.

Control of the narrow waterway, a vital artery for global energy trade whose virtual closure has led to spiraling oil prices, is a major obstacle in talks to end the three-month-old US-Iran war.

A US-Bahraini resolution on the strait has been under discussion for more than two weeks, with a vote repeatedly delayed as China and Russia signal they could veto it.

The US-Bahraini draft resolution demands Iran halt attacks and mining in the strait. China and Russia vetoed a similar US-backed text in April, arguing it was biased against Tehran.

Washington has secured the support of almost 140 countries to co-sponsor its text in the hope of avoiding a veto, two European diplomats say.

France, another veto-wielding power, has so far refused to back the US text.

“There is a draft resolution between the US and Bahrain currently under discussion. This forms the basis of the current discussions. The date for the vote has not yet been announced,” France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux says.