China called for "unimpeded" navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, a day after US President Donald Trump threatened to blockade the crucial waterway beginning on Monday night Hong Kong time.

"The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability, and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community," Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a news conference on Monday.

China urged calm and restraint on all sides, he said in response to a question about US President Donald Trump's threat to launch a naval ⁠blockade of the ⁠Strait of Hormuz after talks ⁠with Iran failed.

Keeping the key waterway safe, stable and unimpeded serves the common interest of the international community, Guo said.

China stands ready to work with all sides to safeguard energy security and supply, he said.

Guo was speaking after US Central Command had, in a statement, said "the blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman".

US forces would not impede vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, it added.

In a response, an Iranian Armed Forces spokesman said US restrictions on vessels in international waters was illegal and "amounts to piracy" and that Iran would decisively implement a "permanent mechanism" to control ⁠the strait following the US ⁠blockade threat.

He added that Gulf ports must be accessible to all or none, adding that no port in the Gulf or Gulf of Oman would remain secure if Iranian ports were endangered.

World leaders have joined Beijing in directly or indirectly condemning the blockade.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said keeping the strait open was "vital" and that "we are not supporting the Strait of Hormuz blockade".

"It is, ⁠in my view, vital that we get the strait open and fully open, and that's where we've put ⁠all of our efforts in the last few and we'll continue to do so," he told BBC Radio 5 ⁠Live.

Starmer said that "whatever the pressure, Britain would not be dragged into the Iran war and was not supporting a blockade".

Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said the blockade "makes no sense".

"I too think it's something that makes no sense ... It's one more episode in this whole downward spiral into which we've been dragged," she said in an interview on Spanish public television. (AFP/Reuters)


Edited by Tony Sabine