Trump demands allies, China join Hormuz escort effort
What happened
President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was “demanding” that “about seven” countries reliant on Middle East oil help force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively halted traffic through the narrow, heavily trafficked strait, sending oil and gas prices sharply higher.
Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One after a weekend of golf and fundraising in Florida, did not identify the seven countries. But in a social media post Saturday, he said “many” countries “will be sending War Ships” to help the U.S. “keep the Strait open and safe,” and “hopefully” that list will include China, France Japan, South Korea and Britain. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Trump told the Financial Times. “Whether we get support or not,” he said on Air Force One, “we will remember.”
Who said what
Trump and his top aides “spent the weekend framing their Iran operation as a resounding military success while imploring other countries to join” a Hormuz escort coalition they plan to unveil “as soon as this week,” The Wall Street Journal said. Trump’s call for help in this “costly and risky” campaign was “notable because it was the first time he had sounded eager to build a broad coalition to counter Iran,” The New York Times said. And notably, “he was asking for backup from allies who were largely not consulted about the decision to plunge into the war.”
Trump has “grown more agitated with news coverage and has failed to find a way to explain why he started the war — or how he will end it — that resonates” with a U.S. public worried about mounting deaths and soaring gas prices, The Associated Press said. “Iran wants to make a deal,” Trump told NBC News on Saturday, but “I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet.” Iran “never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiation,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS News. “We are ready to defend ourselves as long as it takes.”
What next?
U.S. allies have “responded to the idea of sending warships to the strait with caution, if at all,” the Times said, and Beijing has “little incentive” to participate because “Iran is allowing Chinese ships through the strait.” It is in the European Union’s “interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Monday morning. “We have been in touch with the U.S. colleagues,” but this “is out of NATO’s area of action.”