No to the extension to the area of the Strait of Hormuz of Operation Aspides, the European Union's military mission to protect ships transiting the Red Sea threatened by Houthi attacks that began at the end of 2023. They said so almost in unison the spokesman of the Greek government, Pavlos Marinakis, and the Italian Minister of Affairs, Antonio Tajani, representatives of the executives of the two nations whose ships currently constitute the naval force of the mission, in meeting of the Council of Ministers in Brussels today EU foreign affairs ministers whose agenda includes the situation in the Middle East.

Marinakis stressed that "Operation Aspides is geographically limited to the Red Sea and does not concern the Strait of Hormuz' and that its objective 'is the surveillance and protection of ships. This," he specified, "is the involvement of Greece. After having had contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - added the government spokesman of Athens - I reiterate that our country continues to ask Iran to refrain from any action that obstructs freedom navigation. It is fundamental, and the whole world understands it The reason: universal application of international law. This is the position of our country, which is for a long time Return to diplomacy. And in no case, I repeat, do we intend to to go to war".

Tajani highlighted that Operation Aspides "is a defence mission" and therefore - he observed - "not it seems to me that it can be extended to Hormuz."