ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The foreign ministers of Spain and Denmark on Tuesday voiced strong support for keeping the strategic Strait of Hormuz open and restricting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
In remarks to Rudaw’s Zinar Shino on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Luxembourg, Spain’s foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares stressed the waterway should be reopened.
"I'm very clear about Iran. Iran must stop this unjustified attacks on all the Middle East countries. Hormuz must be open, freely, secure, with no charge for anyone in the future,” he said.
Albares’ remarks came as US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he had agreed to extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan’s request, allowing Iranian officials additional time to submit a “unified proposal” for an agreement. The truce, declared on April 8 after six weeks of war, was set to expire late Wednesday US time.
Trump’s announcement came less than an hour after media outlets affiliated with the Iranian military reported that Tehran’s negotiating team would not attend talks scheduled for Wednesday in Islamabad.
Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen underscored the global economic stakes tied to maritime security, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.
"The right to the free movement in the international sea is crucial. And the whole global economy is dependent on that," Rasmussen told Rudaw. "Same goes for Denmark, we are a small nation, but a big shipping nation. So we call for de-escalation, and we call for opening up the Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz."
He also expressed hope that "there will be talks in Islamabad," between the US and Iran, and that "everybody could agree that there should be right to free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."
The United States and Israel launched a preemptive air campaign against Iran on February 28, targeting more than 17,000 sites across the country over six weeks of hostilities before the sides agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8.
While the first round of discussions ended without a final agreement on April 11, Islamabad has in recent days stepped up efforts to host a second round. However, as of the time of writing, those efforts have yet to yield tangible results.