Reluctant allies
In his tweets on Saturday, Trump claimed that Iran’s military capability had been eliminated, but acknowledged that it was still capable of attacking the strait.
“It is easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a short-range missile somewhere along, or in, this Water, no matter how defeated they are,” he wrote.
As he urged nations to send ships to the strait, he added that “The United States will bomb the hell out of the coast and constantly fire on Iranian ships and vessels from the water. One way or another, we will soon make the Strait of Hormuz OPEN, SAFE and FREE!”
On Friday, the US military heavily bombed targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, which handles almost all of Iran’s crude exports.
Trump threatened to also hit the island’s oil infrastructure, which was spared the attacks, “if Iran or anyone else” interferes with shipping through the strait.
US allies have been reluctant to provide military support for US-Israeli attacks on Iran, but they have mobilized warships in response to the widening conflict.
On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron visited a French aircraft carrier deployed in the Mediterranean and said France and its allies were preparing a “defensive” mission to reopen the strait.
And on Tuesday, a UK warship left a port in southern England en route to the eastern Mediterranean to “strengthen British defenses in the region” after a drone attack on the British Akrotiri base in southern Cyprus.
