Fatima Al-Kassab

That is right.

It was a virtual call.

It was hosted by the UK's Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper.

She was keen to stress that over 40 countries took part, including representatives from European countries, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, but of course, not the US or Israel, the countries that launched the war.

Cooper said the rest of the world had been left to deal with the consequences, though, which is why she was organising this meeting.

She said that by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, Iran was hijacking a global shipping route.

And she said, holding the global economy hostage,

And she said that traffic through the strait had plunged from 150 ships a day to between 10 to 20 ships a day.

So this meeting was about diplomatic and economic measures that these countries can take both now and after the fighting stops to help secure the shipping route.

It was not a military meeting, though.

The Foreign Secretary did say that military planners from these same countries would get together next week to think about defensive capabilities, again, for securing the strait once the fighting stopped.

Yeah, not quite that.

They did discuss a range of things, and they were really just discussing them at this point, including putting more diplomatic pressure on Iran, including via the UN, and rejecting any attempt by Iran to impose tolls on ships passing through.

They said they explored the option of sanctions to bear down on Iran if the straits stays closed.

but they didn't agree on anything concrete.

They also talked about working with the International Maritime Organization to try to help about 20,000 sailors and thousands of ships that are currently stuck in the strait.

But Britain's foreign secretary said this is just the first step.

Yes, so we had France's President Emmanuel Macron saying yesterday that the idea of using force to reopen the strait, something Trump has suggested, is unrealistic.

He said that would leave cargo ships vulnerable to Iranian attacks.

He criticised Trump's threats to pull out of NATO too.