{"id":540368,"date":"2026-03-16T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540368\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T15:41:10","slug":"uk-allies-refuse-trump-call-to-send-warships-as-strait-of-hormuz-blocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540368\/","title":{"rendered":"UK, Allies Refuse Trump Call to Send Warships as Strait of Hormuz Blocked"},"content":{"rendered":"

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer<\/a> has rejected a request from US President Donald Trump<\/a> to deploy British warships to the Strait of Hormuz, which is currently blocked to commercial shipping amid a rapidly escalating conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n

The crisis follows a dramatic escalation in the Middle East after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28 that killed its supreme leader<\/a>, Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

JOIN US ON TELEGRAM<\/p>\n

Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran has since vowed to shut down the strategic waterway<\/a>, one of the world\u2019s most important oil routes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny vessel whose oil cargo or the vessel itself belongs to the United States, the Zionist regime or their hostile allies will be considered legitimate targets,\u201d Iran\u2019s central military command, Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, said in a statement carried by state television.<\/p>\n

Despite Washington\u2019s push to assemble an international naval force to secure the passage, key US allies appear reluctant to take part.<\/p>\n

According to The Daily Telegraph<\/a>, Starmer\u2019s government is not prepared to send British naval vessels into the strait.<\/p>\n

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said London is \u201cintensively looking\u201d at what could be done to help reopen the route, including deploying unmanned systems to search for naval mines, but stopped short of committing to a warship deployment.<\/p>\n

Other allies are also holding back. France, Germany and South Korea have likewise declined to send naval vessels, amid concerns the conflict could drag on indefinitely.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Other Topics of Interest<\/p>\n

Trump Warns of \u2018Very Bad\u2019 Future For NATO Over Lack of Support in Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been very sweet. We didn\u2019t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut we helped them. Now we\u2019ll see if they help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Trump urged<\/a> China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom to dispatch warships to the Persian Gulf \u201cso that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paris quickly rejected the request. France\u2019s armed forces minister said the country would maintain a \u201cdefensive and protective\u201d posture and would not be drawn into a war led by the United States and Israel.<\/p>\n

Germany has also expressed doubts about expanding the European Union\u2019s naval operations. Johann Wadephul, Germany\u2019s foreign minister, said he was \u201cvery skeptical\u201d that extending the EU\u2019s Aspides naval mission \u2013 currently focused on protecting commercial traffic in the Red Sea \u2013 to the Strait of Hormuz would improve security.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Japan and Australia have said they do not plan to deploy naval ships<\/a> to escort commercial vessels through the strait, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n

Despite the reluctance among allies, the Trump administration is expected to announce this week that several countries have agreed to form a coalition to escort ships through the strait, The Wall Street Journal<\/a> reported, citing US officials. The countries involved have not been publicly identified.<\/p>\n

At the same time, reports have emerged that Iranian authorities may allow vessels linked to China to pass through the strait in an effort to ease pressure on one of Tehran\u2019s key strategic partners. Some ships are reportedly switching their transponder signals to appear connected to China.<\/p>\n

Washington has already begun reinforcing its military presence. Trump has dispatched a detachment of US Marines from the Far East to the Persian Gulf, raising the prospect of American ground forces becoming involved in the confrontation with Iran \u2013 a move that could mark a major escalation.<\/p>\n

Tensions between Washington and London have also flared during the crisis. Trump previously criticized Starmer<\/a> for refusing to allow British bases in the Middle East to be used for strikes on Iran during the opening phase of the war, saying he \u201cnever thought he would see such a thing from the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two leaders spoke by phone on March 15 and discussed the \u201cimportance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d according to The Telegraph.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has rejected a request from US President Donald Trump to deploy British warships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-540368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}