{"id":347122,"date":"2026-03-15T06:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347122\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T06:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T06:42:09","slug":"trump-rejects-peace-overtures-and-calls-on-countries-to-send-ships-to-strait-of-hormuz-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/347122\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump rejects peace overtures and calls on countries to send ships to Strait of Hormuz \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US president Donald Trump<\/a> has called on other countries including China to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to reopen it. <\/p>\n

The strait, through which 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil flows, is effectively blocked by Iran<\/a>, which has attacked 16 vessels in the strait since the war began on February 28th. <\/p>\n

In a post on his Truth Social<\/a> site, Trump called on China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to send warships to the key shipping channel so there can \u201cno longer be a threat\u201d from Iran. <\/p>\n

He adds that many countries will be sending warships to keep the shipping channel \u201copen and safe\u201d. <\/p>\n

Trump and his administration have rebuffed attempts to end the war, now in its 15th day, and to allow for Oman to mediate peace talks, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n

Oman, which mediated \u2060the nuclear talks before the war, tried several times to open a line of communication, but the White House made it clear it was not interested, Omani diplomatic sources told Reuters. <\/p>\n

US warplanes and missiles attacked Kharg Island with successive bombing raids overnight and into Saturday. The US military said it had hit 90 military targets on the island. <\/p>\n

The island\u2019s terminals is where 90 per cent of Iranian oil is shipped from.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz is not closed to friendly countries. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0What is happening at the Strait of Hormuz and why could it trigger a cost-of-living crisis?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only closed to the tankers and the ships which are attacking us and their allies,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He also warned countries in the Middle East with US bases that they will be targeted. The Iranian government has said that missiles used to attack Kharg Island had been fired from the United Arab Emirates<\/a> (UAE) and it would respond in kind. <\/p>\n

Araghchi said its forces had tracked the missile launches to two locations in the UAE. \u201cIt is very dangerous that they are using highly populated areas to launch rockets against us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The UAE port of Fujairah was targeted by a strike earlier on Saturday, causing a large fire. It\u2019s a key location for the refuelling of ships and one of the largest oil storage facilities in the region. It is also the only significant UAE port which lies outside the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n

In Lebanon, the death toll has risen to 826, according to state media. Lebanon, from where the Iranian proxy force Hizbullah operates, has been caught in the crosshairs of the war between Israel and Iran. <\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly targeted buildings in Beirut and in southern Lebanon that it said is being used by Hizbullah to attack it. <\/p>\n

France, which ruled Lebanon for two decades after the first World War, has proposed a compromise plan that would end the conflict with Israel. <\/p>\n

France\u2019s proposal would see Lebanon recognising Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon. Negotiations would then begin on a non-aggression agreement to end the state of war between the countries.<\/p>\n

Two people were injured after an Iranian ballistic missile struck Eilat in southern Israel. Fragments hit three locations: a residential street, an empty park, and the city\u2019s industrial zone. Emergency teams secured multiple impact sites as damage assessments continue.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military says it killed two senior officials in Iran\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya emergency command in an air strike on Tehran.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said Abdullah Jalali-Nasab and Amir Shariat \u2013 described as senior figures in the command\u2019s intelligence branch \u2013 died in the attack.<\/p>\n

Adraee said the attack followed the earlier killing of Saleh Asadi, head of the intelligence unit, at the start of the US and Israel\u2019s continuing assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump has called on other countries including China to send warships to the Strait of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,123265,11829,150432,14396,43,40,38,41,39,36222],"class_list":["post-347122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-hizbullah","tag-iran","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-lebanon","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-arab-emirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}