Bahrain’s UN Ambassador Jamal Fares Alrowaiei has said the country’s UN Security Council resolution to authorise “all necessary means” to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz still requires “a lot of work”, Al Jazeera reports.

“There are ongoing communications and discussions with the council members to bring a convergence of views and find a draft that can garner consensus, so that it can be adopted soon,” Alrowaiei has said.

Bahrain, which took over the presidency of the 15-member council for the month of April, circulated a new version of a draft resolution that dropped a previous explicit reference to binding enforcement, hoping to overcome objections from other countries, particularly Russia and China.

But a UN diplomat reportedly said China, Russia and France raised issues with the new draft before it would have gone into final form today under a so-called silence procedure — where a resolution is adopted if no member objects.