Trump seeks international coalition to reopen Hormuz Strait
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- First seen: March 16, 2026 at 06:01 AM UTC
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Trump faces coalition of the unwilling on Iran
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump spent his first year back in power disparaging US allies. Now he wants them to help America in the Iran war — and they are none too enthusiastic. From tariffs to insults and threatening to invade Greenland, Trump has rarely missed an opportunity in recent months to criticize America’s partners. Yet now the 79-year-old Republican has said he expects the same allies to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic and reacted angrily when they rebuffed him. “It’s an extraordinary demand,” said Philip Gordon, the former national security advisor to vice president Kamala Harris and now an academic at the Brookings Institution. “To justify risking people’s lives, not only for that operation, but for a president who has done nothing but insult and berate you for the last 15 months, that’s probably a bridge too far,” Gordon said. Trump has warned that the Nato alliance could be at risk if it fails to step up to unblock the strategic waterway, saying other countries get most of their oil supply through it and must contribute. But while he insisted on Monday that “we don’t need anybody” to clear the straits, he also thundered that US allies from Europe to Asia owe Washington for giving them decades of protection. Trump has also hit out at China for failing to help. ‘Layers of irony’ In foreign capitals there has been deep skepticism over getting involved in a war Trump did not consult them on, yet which has caused major disruption to their economies. Their reluctance has been compounded by Trump’s repeated tongue-lashings since returning to office. Trump has slapped tariffs on allies, berated Nato members over their defence spending and support for Ukraine, and unveiled a national security strategy that prioritized boosting pro-Trump parties in Europe. He has disparaged the contributions of nations whose soldiers fought and died alongside US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan — and claimed that America won World War II by itself. And just weeks ago came Trump’s threats to invade Greenland, which prompted an unprecedented display of unity behind fellow Nato member Denmark that forced Trump to back down. “There are several layers of irony,” remarked Erwan Lagadec of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. Lagadec said the United States had “launched a war without consulting allies, expecting them to mop up the mess, and that’s not going fly”. Nato would also unlikely be in a position, or achieve consensus, to launch any major mission in the Strait of Hormuz, Lagadec added. Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2026
DawnMarch 18, 2026 at 05:25 AM UTCTrump blasts ‘foolish’ Nato on Iran, says US needs no help after allies rebuff call for help on Hormuz
US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at “foolish” Nato over Iran, saying the United States needs no help after allies rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said most US allies had rejected his push to escort ships through the crucial waterway, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would “never” do so until the situation was calmer. “I think Nato is making a very foolish mistake,” Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office. “I’ve long said that I wonder whether or not Nato would ever be there for us. So this was a great test.” But Trump insisted that Washington was ready to go it alone against Iran, saying that even Nato allies had agreed that Tehran needed to be confronted over its nuclear programme. “We don’t need too much help. We don’t need any help,” Trump said. Minutes before the meeting, Trump made a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform saying US forces “no longer need” military help in the Iran war. Trump said that “most” Nato allies had said they did not want to get involved, along with Japan, Australia and South Korea, describing the decades-old military alliance as a “one-way street.” “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!” he said. The 79-year-old Republican has long criticised Nato, and since returning to power in January 2025 he has pushed its members into increasing their defence spending. Asked if he would reconsider the US relationship with Nato as he has suggested in the past, Trump said it was “certainly something that we should think about” but added: “I have nothing currently in mind.” ‘Big mistake’ But he repeated his criticisms of foreign counterparts over the issue, saying British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “hasn’t been supportive, and I think it’s a big mistake.” Of Macron, he merely said that “he’ll be out of office soon.” The US leader had suggested on Monday that both Paris and London would be ready to help, and said other countries he did not name were already on board. But Macron insisted on Tuesday that France would not participate in operations to open the strait in the current context, but once the situation becomes “calmer” it could participate in an “escort system” alongside other nations. Britain has also waved off Washington’s request for assistance. Trump, meanwhile, kept up his mixed messaging about the length and goals of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which has expanded dramatically across the Middle East and caused global oil prices to surge. He said that Iran’s “actual top leader was killed yesterday,” in an apparent reference to Israel’s claim that it had assassinated powerful national security chief Ali Larijani. Iran was “just a military operation to me” and “we’ll be leaving in pretty much the very near future,” Trump said, but he remained vague about his political plan for the country after the war. “We’re going to try to get people that are going to run it well,” he said. US-Israeli strikes on February 28 assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the republic’s long-serving supreme leader, and Iran has named his son Mojtaba Khamenei to replace him.
DawnMarch 17, 2026 at 07:29 PM UTCWar, oil and alliances: Trump seeks global backing to reopen Strait of Hormuz
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has escalated his campaign to enlist international support in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, warning that the future of NATO could be at risk if European and Asian allies fail to assist. “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 declared in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday. Trump also said that he could delay his summit with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month as he pressed Beijing to help unblock the crucial waterway. In the same interview, he repeated an earlier appeal that countries dependent on Gulf oil should bear shared responsibility for ensuring the free flow of energy through the strategically vital waterway. “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” he said. Trump’s comments, made in an eight-minute phone call with the FT, came a day after he appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to join a “team effort” to open up the chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. The appeals come more than two weeks after the US and Israel launched airstrikes at Iran, as the war effectively restricted shipping through the Strait, a chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil passes. The blockade has already contributed to a sharp surge in international oil prices, which reached $106 a barrel by Sunday — a 45 per cent increase since the start of the conflict. Gasoline prices in the United States have also jumped, reaching a national average of $3.68 per gallon, according to AAA, an increase of nearly 24 per cent in a fortnight. The New York Times noted that the Trump administration appears to have misjudged the economic fallout. “His advisers appear to have miscalculated how severely Iranian retaliation could disrupt global energy markets,” the newspaper noted. It added that oil prices have risen “by more than 40 percent, defying efforts to calm markets.” The political fallout at home is also becoming more visible. The Times observed that “The Trump administration has struggled to sell the war with Iran to a skeptical American public, including Trump’s own right-wing supporters.” Trump has taken to Truth Social to reiterate his call, promising that the United States would coordinate with allied nations to “keep the Strait open and safe.” Yet his repeated public urgings underscore the difficulties Washington faces in mobilizing allies to take direct military action. The UK Ministry of Defence responded cautiously, stating that it was “discussing a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region” with its partners. The challenge is partly logistical. Analysts note that the US Navy’s mine-sweeping capabilities are currently deployed elsewhere, limiting Washington’s ability to secure the passage unilaterally. Strategic ambiguity has further complicated matters. While at first Trump enthusiastically called on Iranians to rise up, the Times reported that he later shifted tone, noting he expressed skepticism that a popular uprising could succeed, saying opponents faced “a big hurdle” because they were likely to be gunned down if they mounted protests. Daniel Shapiro, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East from 2024 to 2025, told the Atlantic Council: “What is less clear is how well the Israeli goal of regime change matches the United States’ objectives, or if it does, how long that will remain the case.” He added: “Trump and his administration have offered inconsistent explanations of the war’s strategic objectives.” Regional dynamics are also influencing Washington’s approach. According to the NYT , “Trump is talking regularly to Arab leaders, particularly Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince.” Vali Nasr, a US scholar of Iranian origin, cautioned that the current trajectory could prove destabilising, warning: “Just as the war is poised to escalate, this leak could be adding fuel to the fire.” He also noted that Tehran believes time is on its side and that a prolonged conflict could alter Washington’s calculus while strengthening nationalism at home. Military planners are also wary of escalation. Nate Swanson, a resident senior fellow and director of the Iran Strategy Project at the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, told the Atlantic Council: “Iran is a massive country with very difficult topography and would require hundreds of thousands of troops to occupy. Any use of ground forces would likely be limited to special operations forces for specific missions.” For Pakistan and other nations dependent on Gulf energy, the crisis carries immediate economic and security implications. More than 4.5 million Pakistanis work in the region, and any severe disruption to Gulf economies would reverberate back home through remittances and trade. The Strait of Hormuz is not just a distant flashpoint; any sustained disruption in shipping could exacerbate energy costs, fuel inflation and destabilize markets across Asia.
DawnMarch 16, 2026 at 05:12 AM UTC