Trump says Strait of Hormuz will help ‘on the way’ as allies reject military action | US-Israel war over Iran news

The US president refuses to identify which countries he says are responding to the naval alliance’s call to open the trade route.

United States President Donald Trump has said “many countries” have said “they are on their way” following his plea for an international naval alliance to secure the Strait of Hormuz amid the US-Israeli war over Iran.

Trump’s comments on Monday came after he called on a handful of countries to join the alliance over the weekend. However, he did not identify any of the countries in question.

“A lot of countries have told me they’re on the way. Some are very excited about it and some are not,” Trump said.

Asked afterward which countries had pledged to join, Trump responded, “I won’t say yet,” adding that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would make the official announcement.

“They’ve already started — it’s just going to take some time to get there,” Trump said. “In some cases, you have to travel the ocean. So it’s not going fast, but it’s going fast. And some of us locals are doing it.”

In his appeal over the weekend, Trump identified China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom as countries that should join the union. He then added that “all countries in the world that receive oil through the Strait of Hormuz”, particularly members of the NATO alliance, should join.

So far, no country has confirmed its involvement.

The coalition is kept at arm’s length

In contrast, several countries have already raised expectations, with France, Australia and Japan saying they have no intention of sending military ships.

On Monday, several European leaders joined the chorus, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying there would be “no military involvement”, but Berlin was open to supporting diplomatic efforts.

South Korea and the UK said they were reviewing the situation. UK Prime Minister Keir Stormer said he was discussing the possibility of deploying his mine-hunting drones in the region, but maintained that the UK would not be “drawn into a wider war”.

Meanwhile, Trump again on Monday took aim at countries that do not support the mission.

“Some countries are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from terrible outside sources and they haven’t been enthusiastic,” he said.