US President Donald Trump said “many countries” had told him “they are on their way” following calls from the international naval coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israel war against Iran.
President Trump issued the statement on Monday after calling on several countries to join the coalition. However, he did not specify the country in question.
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“Many countries have told me that they are moving forward with their plans. Some are very committed, some are not,” Trump said.
Later, when asked which countries had committed to participating, President Trump replied, “I don’t want to say yet,” adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would make a formal announcement.
“They’ve already started. It’s going to take some time to get there,” Trump said. “In some cases, you have to travel oceans, so it doesn’t go as fast, but it goes fast. And there are some companies that are doing it quite locally.”
In his appeal over the weekend, President Trump named China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom as countries that should join the coalition. He then called on all “nations of the world that receive oil through the Strait of Hormuz” and said they should especially join the NATO alliance.
So far, no country has confirmed their involvement.
Union held at arm’s length
By contrast, several countries, including Australia, Japan, Poland, Sweden and Spain, have already said they have no intention of sending warships and have ruled out the possibility.
Several more European leaders joined the chorus on Monday, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying “there will be no military participation” but that Berlin stands ready to support diplomatic efforts.
South Korea and Britain said they were reviewing the situation. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was discussing the possibility of providing mine-clearing drones in the region, but insisted Britain “will not be drawn into a wider war”.
France expressed willingness to provide further assistance.
Meanwhile, President Trump on Monday again targeted countries that do not support the mission.
“There are some countries that we’ve been supporting for years. We’ve been protecting them from scary external sources, but they’re not as enthusiastic.”
Although he did not specify the country, Trump pointed to one clear refusal.
“We have some countries with 45,000 soldiers protecting them from harm and we’ve done a great job,” he said. “So what we want to know is, do you have minesweepers? “Well, we don’t want to get involved, sir.”
Iran remains defiant
Global oil prices have soared 40-50% amid repeated Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump has insisted the United States is more insulated from the fallout, but economists say the effects will ripple around the world.
About 20 to 30 percent of the world’s oil consumption passes through the narrow strait that separates Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
President Trump said on Monday that more than 100 Iranian naval vessels have been “sunk or destroyed” since the United States and Israel began their war on February 28, including more than 30 “minelayers.”
He also claimed to reduce Iran’s ballistic missile launches by 90% and drone attacks by 95%.
Overall, the United States and Israel have attacked more than 7,000 targets across Iran, “mostly commercial and military targets,” he said.
He spoke shortly after human rights group Amnesty International said the United States was responsible for a strike at a girls’ school in Minab that left at least 170 people, mostly children, dead.
At least 1,444 people have been killed in Iran, 20 across the Gulf and 15 in Israel since the war began. Thirteen American soldiers were also killed.
The United Nations refugee agency said as many as 3.2 million people had been forced to flee inside Iran during the fighting.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials remain defiant.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a speech on Monday that Iran intends to continue the operation.
“Now they…understand what kind of country they are dealing with. A country that is not afraid to defend itself, that is ready to continue the war wherever it goes and to take it as far as it needs to go,” Araghchi said.
