United States President Donald Trump has said “numerous countries” have told him “they’re on their way” following his appeal for an international naval coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
Trump made the statement on Monday after over the weekend calling on a handful of countries to join the coalition. However, he did not identify any of the countries in question.
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“Numerous countries have told me they’re on the way. Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t,” Trump said.
When subsequently asked which countries had pledged to join, Trump responded “I’d rather not say yet”, adding that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be making an official announcement.
“They’ve already started to – it takes a little while to get there,” Trump said. “In some cases, you have to travel an ocean. So doesn’t go that fast, but it’ll go fast. And we have some that are fairly local that are doing it.”
In his appeal over the weekend, Trump identified China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom as countries that should join the coalition. He later on called on all “the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait”, specifically saying the members of the NATO alliance should join.
To date, no country has confirmed its involvement.
Coalition kept at arm’s length
In contrast, several countries have already doused the prospect, with Australia, Japan, Poland and Sweden and Spain saying they had no intentions of sending military ships.
On Monday, several more European leaders joined the chorus, with German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius saying there would be “no military participation”, but that Berlin was open to supporting diplomatic efforts.
South Korea and the UK have said they were reviewing the situation. The UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was discussing the possibility of offering its mine-hunting drones in the region, but maintained the UK would “not be drawn into the wider war”.
France has indicated more willingness to help.
Trump, meanwhile, again took aim on Monday at countries that would not support the mission.
“Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic,” he said.
Without specifying a country, Trump pointed to one apparent rebuff.
“We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers … protecting them from harm’s way and we have done a great job,” he said. “And well, we want to know, do you have any mine sweepers? ‘Well, would rather not get involved, sir.’”
Iran remains defiant
Global oil prices have shot up by 40 to 50 percent amid repeated Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump has argued that US is more insulated from the fallout, although economists have said the impact will reverberate globally.
About 20 to 30 percent of global oil consumption travels through the narrow strait that separates Iran from the Arabian peninsula.
On Monday, Trump said that more than 100 Iranian naval vessels have been “sunk or destroyed” since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, including destroying more than 30 “mine laying ships”.
He further claimed a 90 percent reduction in Iran’s ballistic missile launches and a 95 percent reduction in drone attacks.
All told, he said the US and Israel have struck more than 7,000 targets across Iran, “mostly commercial and military targets”.
He spoke shortly after the rights group Amnesty International said the US was responsible for a strike on a girls’ school in Minab that killed at least 170 people, most of them children.
At least 1,444 people have been killed in Iran, 20 across the Gulf, 15 in Israel and 13 US soldiers have been killed since the war began.
The UN refugee agency has said as many as 3.2 million people have been displaced inside of Iran during the fighting.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, have remained defiant.
Speaking on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi indicated Tehran would continue its operations.
“By now they have… understood what kind of nation they are dealing with, one that does not hesitate to defend itself and is ready to continue the war wherever it may lead, and take it as far as necessary,” Araghchi said.