With no Iran war end in sight, Germany pulls back two navy ships eyed for Hormuz mission
By Sebastian Sprenger
Jul 24, 2026, 02:49 PM
COLOGNE, Germany — The German government is pulling back two navy ships from the Gulf of Aden sent there weeks ago on stand-by to support an eventual post-war Strait of Hormuz security mission, as hope is fading in Berlin that the conflict in Iran will end anytime soon.
Defense leaders ordered the mine hunter Fulda and the support vessel Mosel to redeploy from Djibouti, a European and international naval hub at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, to the eastern Mediterranean, the Ministry of Defense announced on Thursday. The ships and crew will hold there and await further instructions about whether an international Hormuz mission will come to pass at all.
After the U.S-Israeli war against Iran began in late February, European nations pledged to assign naval vessels to a multinational mission for securing shipping in the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, over which Iran claims control. A precondition for such a deployment, governments here said, was that the conflict would ebb to such a degree that none of their ships would come under fire in a war many here consider pointless.
The prospect of a “permissive environment” is now deemed slim by Berlin, the Ministry of Defense announcement reads, as open hostilities have broken out again between Iran and the United States following a period of calm.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2026/07/24/with-no-iran-war-end-in-sight-germany-pulls-back-two-navy-ships-eyed-for-hormuz-mission/
