{"id":540849,"date":"2026-03-16T20:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540849\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:44:16","slug":"trump-warns-nato-to-help-secure-strait-of-hormuz-or-face-very-bad-future-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/540849\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump warns NATO to help secure Strait of Hormuz or face \u2018very bad future\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> had a warning for his NATO allies over the weekend \u2013 help the U.S. secure the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> or suffer a \u201cvery bad future\u201d as a consequence of the Iran war<\/a> and the oil shock.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,\u201d Trump told the Financial Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s no response or if it\u2019s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. was hitting Iran \u201cvery hard,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got nothing left but to make a little trouble in the Strait \u2026 these people are beneficiaries and they ought to help us police it,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cChina should help too,\u201d citing China\u2019s energy dependence on oil from the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

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On Monday, Trump said \u201cnumerous countries\u201d had told him they were \u201con the way\u201d to help the U.S. with the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Trump\u2019s demands have been met with a mixed response from countries around the world, including from U.S. allies.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:37
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tU.S.-Iran war enters 3rd week with no end in sight\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tWho is answering the U.S. call on Iran?\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Article Five of the NATO charter says an attack against any NATO member will be treated like an attack on the whole alliance, but some experts say NATO allies are unclear on whether this is a NATO war.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe U.S. administration has demonstrated over the past two weeks that it does not have a clear coherent strategy when it comes to this current conflict,\u201d said Kevin Budning, director of scientific research at the CDA Institute.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tGet daily National news<\/p>\n

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you’ll never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think Donald Trump gives his NATO allies any assurances that he has a clear policy,\u201d Budning said, pointing to the changing rationale for why the U.S. launched the military operation.<\/p>\n

Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz after the United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran more than two weeks ago, which kicked off an ongoing wave of repeated Iranian strikes across the Middle East and into neighbouring Gulf states.<\/p>\n

Several U.S. allies said on Monday they had no immediate plans to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

Germany, Spain and Italy were among allies that ruled out participating in any mission in the Gulf, at least for now.<\/p>\n

Other countries were more circumspect, with Britain and Denmark saying they would consider ways they might help, but emphasizing a need to de-escalate and avoid getting dragged into the war.<\/p>\n

China is noncommittal. France said they help when \u201ccircumstances permit.\u201d<\/p>\n

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that Britain is working with allies on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but \u201cwill not be drawn into the wider war.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Australia\u2019s Transport Minister Catherine King told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday that \u201cwe won\u2019t be sending a ship to the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d although she wasn\u2019t aware of such a request from the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how incredibly important that is, but that\u2019s not something that we\u2019ve been asked or that we\u2019re contributing to,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Iraq should\u2019ve been the lesson,\u2019 when it comes to toppling leaders\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told reporters in Brussels on Monday that while Italy backs reinforcing EU naval missions in the Red Sea, \u201cI don\u2019t think these missions can be expanded to include the Strait of Hormuz.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump also criticized Britain\u2019s response after speaking with Starmer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Canada
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.K. might be considered the number one ally \u2026 and when I asked for them to come, they didn\u2019t want to come,\u201d Trump told the Financial Times, adding that Britain only offered to send ships after the U.S. had already reduced Iran\u2019s military capabilities.<\/p>\n

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NATO members states may be walking a fine line, Budning said, trying to not upset Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might see some carrots and sticks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is demonstrated in Canada\u2019s policy where it supported the war, but it doesn\u2019t want to intervene in the war. Canada is also considering its (bilateral) relationship with the United States,\u201d he said, pointing to the upcoming trade negotiations between Canada and the U.S.<\/p>\n

Both Prime Minister Mark Carney and Defence Minister David McGuinty have said that Canada has no intention of participating in U.S.-led military operations in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada was not consulted, did not participate, and has no plans to participate in the offensive actions against Iran that are being undertaken by the U.S. and Israel,\u201d a PMO readout stated last week.<\/p>\n

Carney had previously said the question around Canada\u2019s potential future involvement is a \u201cfundamental hypothetical,\u201d adding the conflict can spread very broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne can never categorically rule out participation,\u201d he said during his trip to Australia earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s response, saying they will allow the U.S. to use some of their bases but also not getting drawn into the conflict, is the \u201cworst of both worlds,\u201d said Aurel Braun, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you say that what the United States is doing is a crime, you can\u2019t let them use your bases and say well, yes, but this is only for defensive purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, he said NATO allies should commit to combating the threat from a potentially nuclear-armed Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hit bases in Cyprus. Britain is a NATO member. If they (Iran) get nuclear weapons and they keep increasing range of their missiles, this regime would be a threat to NATO, to shipping and to the health of the international economic community,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7:55
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe implications of the U.S.-Israel war with Iran\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

However, Iranian strikes on NATO targets in the region might draw the alliance into the conflict, said Joseph Varner, a senior fellow with the McDonald-Laurier Institute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fired three ballistic missiles at Turkey, they\u2019ve hit the French naval facilities in the UAE, they struck the camp that had Canadians in Kuwait, they\u2019ve gone after the military bases in Iraq that have both Spanish and Italian forces at them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhether or not NATO likes this, and whether or not they feel that they were properly consulted, the fact of the matter is that this has been dragged to the doorstep of NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 With files from Reuters and Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. President Donald Trump had a warning for his NATO allies over the weekend \u2013 help the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,1376,43,5897,202944,44,172000,41,39,42,40,2845,3275],"class_list":["post-540849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-news","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-news","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540849","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=540849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}