Trump: show \u2018enthusiasm\u2019<\/p>\n
Trump over the weekend called on countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain to send warships to escort tankers through the strait, warning refusing would be \u201cvery bad for the future of Nato\u201d.<\/p>\n
And he stepped up pressure again on Monday, saying he expected Britain and France to help secure shipping in the key waterway, and criticising US allies for their lukewarm response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe strongly encourage the other nations to get involved with us and get involved quickly and with great enthusiasm,\u201d he said, adding he believed Britain would get involved in a Hormuz mission.<\/p>\n
Oil prices jumped after the strait was closed and remained on Monday above US$100 per barrel as the Iran war moved into a third week.<\/p>\n
Oil prices remain above US$100 a barrel as the Iran war enters a third week. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The volatility further underlined the importance of ensuring safe passage for tankers through the vital transport route.<\/p>\n
Starmer, who had faced stinging criticism from Trump over Britain\u2019s refusal to join the US and Israel in offensive attacks on Iran, told reporters he had discussed the waterway with the US leader on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with all of our allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible and ease the economic impacts,\u201d he said in Downing Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me be clear: that won\u2019t be, and it\u2019s never been envisioned to be, a Nato mission,\u201d Starmer said, while also stressing Britain \u201cwill not be drawn into the wider war\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll have to be an alliance of partners,\u201d he added of any Strait of Hormuz mission.<\/p>\n
\u2018Difficult\u2019<\/p>\n
A Nato official noted that members \u201chave already stepped up to provide additional security in the Mediterranean\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are aware that individual allies are talking with the US and others on what more they might do, including in the context of security in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d the official told AFP.<\/p>\n
Following Trump\u2019s demand for military support, some European countries sought to appear open-minded while remaining non-committal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did not want this war. From day one, we have called for de-escalation,\u201d Denmark\u2019s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Danish media in Brussels before an EU foreign ministers\u2019 meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, I believe we need to keep an open mind and look at how we can contribute,\u201d he said, describing the situation as \u201cvery, very serious\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten told the country\u2019s ANP press agency that it would be \u201cvery difficult to launch a successful mission there in the short term\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trump: show \u2018enthusiasm\u2019 Trump over the weekend called on countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13738,3458,1863,3043,5201,178583,11728,28674,4190,2178,25091,2082,305,42,5838,168436,16609,4754,647,17154,30703,43,1118,90,193,2572,15400,26520,1230,14042,1361,223,61,40,38,41,39,2179,19096,3457],"class_list":["post-332973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alliance","tag-allies","tag-back","tag-call","tag-closed","tag-conduit","tag-critical","tag-crude","tag-demand","tag-donald","tag-effectively","tag-for","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-help","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-members","tag-military","tag-nations","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-of","tag-on","tag-other","tag-president","tag-push","tag-pushed","tag-reopen","tag-strait","tag-that","tag-the","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-trumps","tag-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}