{"id":388719,"date":"2026-03-17T00:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/388719\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T00:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T00:13:07","slug":"us-allies-reject-trump-call-for-escorts-on-strait-of-hormuz-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/388719\/","title":{"rendered":"US allies reject Trump call for escorts on Strait of Hormuz \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nato<\/a> countries have rejected the call by US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> to send warships to escort shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

The US-Israeli war<\/a> on Iran<\/a> is in its third week, largely shutting the strait, through which 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil<\/a> and liquefied natural gas<\/a> flow, raising energy prices and fears of inflation.<\/p>\n

British prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a> said he was working with allies on a viable plan to reopen the waterway \u2013 but insisted it would not be a Nato mission.<\/p>\n

A similar message came from German chancellor Friedrich Merz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lack the mandate from the United Nations<\/a>, the European Union<\/a> or Nato. It was therefore clear from the outset that this war is not a matter for Nato,\u201d he said, stressing that Germany<\/a> was not consulted by either the US or Israel<\/a> before they began their campaign.<\/p>\n

The rejection came despite Trump\u2019s threat that Nato faces a \u201cvery bad\u201d future should its member states fail to help secure passage through the strategic waterway off the Iranian coast.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the White House on Monday night, Trump said several countries had agreed to deploy assets to ensure the Strait of Hormuz is open, but agreed that some countries were not enthusiastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of enthusiasm matters to me,\u201d he said. \u201cFor 40 years we\u2019re protecting you, and you don\u2019t want to get involved for something very minor?\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump\u2019s appeal for help on the Strait of Hormuz goes unansweredOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Trump also said the US has hit 7,000 targets and sunk more than 100 ships so far. \u201cThey have been literally obliterated. The US and Israel are doing what should have been done many years ago\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the Strait of Hormuz remained open. \u201cIt is only closed to our enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The fighting continued on day 17 of the war. The US and Israel hit more regime targets across Iran while Tehran responded with rocket and drone strikes at Israel and Arab Gulf states.<\/p>\n

The Israel Defense Forces<\/a> (IDF) announced that an air-force strike in Tehran had destroyed a \u201cspace-related compound\u201d used to \u201cdevelop attack capabilities against satellites, posing a threat to Israel\u2019s satellites and to space assets of other countries around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Araghchi said Tehran had not asked for a ceasefire \u200bor exchanged messages with the US, according to Iran\u2019s semi-official Student News Network.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, Araqchi also said some \u201cneighbouring states\u201d that host US forces and permit attacks on Iran were also actively encouraging the killing of Iranians.<\/p>\n

He said 200 \u200bchildren were among the hundreds of Iranian civilians killed in US or Israeli bombings.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Mehr news agency said five people had been killed and seven wounded in overnight strikes on Markazi province in central Iran. Fars News Agency reported that several civilians had been killed \u200cin a strike \u2060near Tehran\u2019s Martyrs\u2019 Square, without giving figures.<\/p>\n

Rescue workers in Tehran worked to pull people from the wreckage of a building in what an Iranian Red Crescent aid worker said was an entirely residential alleyway.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s war with Iran\u2019s most powerful proxy, Hizbullah<\/a>, has significantly escalated. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s minister for defence, Israel Katz, confirmed that the IDF has begun a large-scale ground operation in Lebanon<\/a> \u201cto remove threats and protect residents of the Galilee\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military has framed the ground offensive as \u200ba defensive effort to protect northern Israel from Hizbullah attacks, which it says have averaged at least 100 rockets and drones a day and have reached as far as central Israel.<\/p>\n

More than 880 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to Lebanon\u2019s health ministry, and more than 800,000 have been driven from their homes, many from the south as well as from areas near the capital, \u200bBeirut.<\/p>\n

Katz said the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shia residents expelled from south Lebanon will not return to their homes south of the Litani river until the safety of residents of northern Israel is guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have instructed the IDF to act and destroy the terror infrastructure in villages near the border in Lebanon to prevent threats and Hizbullah\u2019s return to the scene, just as was done with Hamas in Gaza,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have promised security for residents of the north \u2013 and we will ensure this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attacks from Iran and Hizbullah have killed 12 people in Israel since the war began, according to the national medical service.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What is happening at the Strait of Hormuz and why could it trigger a cost-of-living crisis?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute, released on Monday, found a clear majority of Israelis support the war. According to the survey, 72 per cent of Israelis believe the decision to attack Iran was correct, while 13 per cent believe it was wrong and 14 per cent say it is too early to have an opinion. <\/p>\n

Support is especially high among Jewish Israelis, with 85 per cent saying the decision was correct. Among Arab Israelis, opinions are more divided. <\/p>\n

However, public opinion polls show the war has not led to any shift in support for prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a> and his coalition. \u2013 Additional reporting: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nato countries have rejected the call by US president Donald Trump to send warships to escort shipping through…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[6222,9,10,356,2219,13,14,6622,6621,6,21029,18929,71,6220,45036,5446,11,12,14407,47615,15,16,5,4897,9951,7,8,2863,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-388719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-binyamin-netanyahu","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-friedrich-merz","16":"tag-germany","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-hizbullah","19":"tag-iran","20":"tag-israel","21":"tag-israel-defence-forces","22":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","23":"tag-keir-starmer","24":"tag-latest-news","25":"tag-latestnews","26":"tag-lebanon","27":"tag-lng","28":"tag-main-news","29":"tag-mainnews","30":"tag-news","31":"tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","32":"tag-oil","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-topstories","35":"tag-united-nations-un","36":"tag-world","37":"tag-world-news","38":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116241629433641252","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}