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More than two weeks into a war President Donald Trump started without asking allies for buy-in, he is now asking for backup, and mostly getting left on read.<\/p>\n
Trump spent the weekend demanding that allies, China, and other Asia-Pacific nations send warships to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil normally flows. He even warned Sunday that NATO faces a \u201cvery bad future\u201d if allies don\u2019t step up, marking another threat just two months after he precipitated an existential crisis for the alliance over Greenland.<\/p>\n
Since the U.S. and Iran launched strikes on Feb. 28, Iran has effectively shut the waterway and may have even begun laying mines.\u00a0Over the weekend, the messaging around the Strait of Hormuz remained muddled: Tehran said that the Strait was \u201copen to all\u201d except America and its allies, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed on CNBC Monday morning that it was the U.S. that \u201callowed\u201d Iranian oil tankers to cross the strait. The price of U.S. oil lowered significantly on Bessent\u2019 s comments, now under $95 a barrel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite the posturing, only a handful of ships have crossed the Hormuz over the last few days. And the response from the international community to Trump\u2019s calls has varied from a polite silence to outright refusal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Germany was very blunt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis war has nothing to do with NATO. It is not NATO\u2019s war,\u201d a spokesperson for Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday, adding that Berlin had \u201cnot considered\u201d participating before the war began and will not be considering it now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Luxembourg\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel also laid it on thick, saying that the NATO member is happy to help with satellites and communications but \u201cBlackmail is also not what I wish for.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the request falls \u201cout of NATO\u2019s area of action\u201d: a reference to Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which limits the alliance\u2019s mutual defense obligations to the region north of the Tropic of Cancer.<\/p>\n
Still, European officials have their own incentive to keep Hormuz open and fear what Trump may do. Not only does Europe rely on Gulf oil supplies, there\u2019s concern Trump will declare victory in Iran in the coming weeks, pull out of the war, and leave them holding the minesweeper (France and the Netherlands historically have some of world\u2019s best minehunting\/sweeping technologies).\u00a0<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered the warmest language of any leader Monday, saying the UK is \u201cworking with allies, including our European partners, to bring together a viable collective plan\u201d to restore navigation, but still committed no ships or timeline. Starmer also defended his refusal to join the offensive, saying he wouldn\u2019t send British forces into a war \u201cwithout a plan to get us out.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Asia, the response has been equally noncommittal. China\u2019s foreign ministry sidestepped questions about sending ships, while Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who visits the White House Thursday, has offered no promise. Trump told the Financial Times he\u2019d like to know Beijing\u2019s position before a planned summit at the end of March\u2014a trip Bessent acknowledged could be delayed, though he insisted any schedule change would reflect logistics as opposed to a rift.<\/p>\n
Australia also ruled out sending naval vessels, but said last week it would send a surveillance aircraft to the Middle East. South Korea said it will note Trump\u2019s requests but would be exploring \u201cvarious measures from multiple angles.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one bright spot for Washington is that the UAE doubled down on U.S. ties, showing strength after absorbing nearly 2,000 Iranian projectiles. \u201cWe don\u2019t take to being bullied around,\u201d Reem Al-Hashimy, the UAE\u2019s minister for international cooperation, told the ABC.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the cost of inaction keeps climbing. Oil hit its highest level since July 2022 last week, and U.S. gas prices are already up 20% since the war started. The International Energy Agency called the disruption \u201cthe largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Blackmail #Americas #allies #ghosting #Trump #Strait #Hormuz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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