blocking the crucial waterway<\/a> in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes, aiming to damage the world economy and pressure Washington as energy prices skyrocket.<\/p>\nTehran says the Hormuz Strait, through which one-fifth of global oil exports normally pass, is open to all except the US and its allies.<\/p>\n
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi told the US network CBS that Tehran has been \u201capproached by a number of countries\u201d seeking safe passage for their vessels, \u201cand this is up to our military to decide\u201d.<\/p>\n
Indian Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar told The Financial Times that negotiations between New Delhi and Tehran had allowed two Indian-flagged gas tankers to pass through the strait on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am at the moment engaged in talking to them, and my talking has yielded some results. This is ongoing\u2026 Certainly, from India\u2019s perspective, it is better that we reason and we coordinate and we get a solution,\u201d Jaishankar said.<\/p>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/INTERACTIVE-Strait-of-Hormuz-March-2-2026-1772714221.png\")
<\/p>\n
\u2018In dialogue\u2019<\/p>\n
At least 10 oil tankers have been hit, targeted, or have reported attacks since the start of the conflict on February 28, according to data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and Iraqi and Iranian authorities.<\/p>\n
With crude oil prices hovering at about $100 a barrel, Trump administration officials insisted that all signs point to a relatively quick \u2060end to the conflict. About 1,000 oil tankers are currently stranded and unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Barbara Slavin, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, said she highly doubted that China would offer naval forces to assist the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think China\u2019s going to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but it doesn\u2019t need to, because Iranian oil is flowing to China quite nicely,\u201d Slavin told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran is only blocking the oil shipments from countries that are affiliated with the United States and Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed with Trump the importance of reopening Hormuz \u201cto end the disruption to global shipping\u201d, and spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney about it separately.<\/p>\n
\u2018Let him send his ships\u2019<\/p>\n
France previously said it was working on a possible international mission to escort ships through the strait, but stressed it must be when \u201cthe circumstances permit\u201d, when fighting has subsided.<\/p>\n
German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul said he was \u201csceptical\u201d about the plan. He told ARD television: \u201cWill we soon be an active part of this conflict? No.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u2060Wall Street Journal reported \u2060on Sunday, citing unnamed \u2060US officials, that the \u2060Trump administration plans to announce as \u2060early as this \u2060week that multiple countries have agreed to \u200cform a coalition to escort ships through the Strait \u2060of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera \u2060could not immediately verify the \u200creport.<\/p>\n
Brigadier-General Ali Mohammad Naini, a spokesman for Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps, challenged Trump on his boast that Iran\u2019s navy was decimated during the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t Trump say that Iran\u2019s navy has been destroyed? If so, let him send his ships into the Persian Gulf if he dares,\u201d Naini was quoted as saying by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article\u00a0|\u00a04 mins info President Donald Trump\u2019s suggestion that countries send their warships alongside US naval…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,801,803,129,3,21,19,22,20,25,1209,231941,24],"class_list":["post-526021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}