Trump seeks global help to keep Hormuz Strait ‘open and safe’
- UK discussing ‘a range of options’
- Japan considering ‘with great caution’
- China, France and others also called on
US President Donald Trump has called on countries impacted by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz to send warships to keep it “open and safe”.
“Many countries, especially those that are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending warships, in conjunction with the United States, to keep the strait open and safe,” the president said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said he expected that China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others affected by this “artificial constraint”, would send warships to the area.
He claimed that the US strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island and told NBC News that more could follow.
The UK defence ministry said it was discussing “a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region” with allies, the BBC reported.
Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy secretary, told Sky News: “We are intensively looking with our allies at what can be done, because it’s so important that we get the strait reopened.”
The policy chief of Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party told state-owned broadcaster NHK that the bar for sending warships to help protect the strait was “extremely high”.
“Legally speaking, we do not rule out the possibility, but given the current situation in which this conflict is ongoing, I believe this is something that must be considered with great caution,” he said.
More from the Iran conflict:
- Iran threatens Gulf oil sites after US strikes on Kharg Island
- Iran ‘likely’ to be laying Hormuz mines despite US scepticism
- Iran makes new threats to Hormuz in ongoing conflict
Tehran has said that it will continue blocking the Hormuz Strait, the world’s busiest oil shipping channel through which about one-fifth of world oil supplies usually pass.
The US-Israel and Iran conflict has been ongoing since February 28.
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