![\"Photographer:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/b6ffbf9a5410e4c4bf80013bd2ad353f.jpeg\")
Photographer: David Hecker\/Getty Images <\/p>\n Photographer: David Hecker\/Getty Images <\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — US allies deflected President Donald Trump\u2019s demands to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, expressing unease about getting pulled into the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
In Brussels, European Union foreign ministers stressed that they did not want to escalate the war, refusing to extend a Red Sea naval mission to help defend the vital passage for energy shipments. In Japan, officials said there were no plans to dispatch ships to escort stalled tankers. The UK similarly wouldn\u2019t commit to a full naval mission, even as Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he\u2019d explore options with allies.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe will not be drawn into the wider war,\u201d Starmer said Monday during a press conference in London. \u201cUltimately we have to open the Strait of Hormuz. That is not a simple task.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxembourg\u2019s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel was more blunt: \u201cBlackmail is not what I wish for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The responses amounted to a rebuttal of Trump, who on Sunday insisted that his allies in NATO and Asia help get oil and gas shipments moving through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the US and Israel attacked Iran. Roughly one fifth of the world\u2019s oil moves through the narrow passage.<\/p>\n
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys says European Union nations should consider US President Donald Trump\u2019s request for help to secure the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil route which has been effectively blocked by Iran. He speaks to Bloomberg\u2019s Oliver Crook in Brussels.Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
The blockade has sent energy prices soaring, leaving governments worried about inflation, economic slowdowns and even food supply disruptions. But on Monday, officials were also cautious about aiding Trump\u2019s operations, which have prompted Tehran to spray missiles and drones across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must not do anything that adds even more tension or escalation,\u201d Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in Brussels. \u201cWhat we need is for the bombings and the missile launches against all countries in the Middle East to stop, and for us to return to the negotiating table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump directly called out his North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies in an interview with the Financial Times, warning that the military alliance would have a \u201cvery bad future\u201d if its members don\u2019t aid the US in Iran. The president\u2019s renewed attacks on the transatlantic organization received a tepid response from European officials on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see that NATO has decided anything in this direction or could be made responsible for the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d said German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, speaking before an EU foreign ministers\u2019 meeting in Brussels.<\/p>\n
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Bettel cautioned that NATO is there to react when members are attacked, not for all defensive or military requests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to remind that none of us has been directly attacked,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are no grounds for now to invoke Article 5,\u201d he added, referencing the alliance\u2019s collective defense clause.<\/p>\n
Some were still willing to at least hear Trump out if he presents NATO with a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to look into it and consider it,\u201d Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys told Bloomberg TV in an interview in Brussels. \u201cI would look for the in-depth debate within NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski agreed: \u201cIf there is a request with NATO to discuss the issue, we will of course consider it out of respect and sympathy for our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK is also exploring whether it could help by deploying autonomous mine-hunting drones alongside other US allies, according to people familiar with the matter, even as it has no plans to joint a full naval mission to secure the Strait while the war is ongoing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working with all of our allies including our European partners to bring together a viable collective plan that can restore freedom of navigation in the region as quickly as possible,\u201d Starmer said. However, he warned that deploying naval assets was \u201cnot easy\u201d and \u201cnot straight-forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
A NATO official told Bloomberg that allies have already offered more security for the Mediterranean, adding that individual allies were talking with the US and others about what else they could do, including for the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas was one of the few voices early on Monday encouraging the bloc to redirect regional resources to the Strait of Hormuz. Specifically, she suggested member states consider expanding their Aspides naval mission, which was originally launched in 2024 after the Houthis attacked shipping vessels in the nearby Red Sea.<\/p>\n
But by Monday evening, even she had conceded no one wanted to dispatch Aspides vessels to protect the Strait, which would require unanimous approval from member states.<\/p>\n
WATCH: EU Foreign Affairs Chief Kaja Kallas says there is no appetite to extend the EU maritime mission in the Red Sea to include the Strait of Hormuz.Source: Bloomberg <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was in our discussion a clear wish to strengthen our operation, but for the time being there was no appetite to change the mandate,\u201d she told reporters after meeting with EU foreign ministers.<\/p>\n
Germany expressed its opposition to shifting the EU naval mission before foreign ministers even met. In an interview with ARD on Sunday, Wadephul said he was \u201cvery skeptical that expanding the Aspides mission in the Strait of Hormuz would lead to greater security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Italy, which has one ship deployed to the Aspides mission, similarly opposed shifting the strategy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Red Sea mission needs to be strengthened within the Red Sea, but changing it is complicated,\u201d Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Monday. \u201cWe think that for now, it is right it stays in the Red Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if EU countries won\u2019t redirect Aspides vessels, they still may commit more assets to the region. Already, France has sent two extra vessels to bolster Aspides.<\/p>\n
Countries are also exploring a potential \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d operation for the region, Kallas said earlier on Monday.<\/p>\n
That said, Kallas stressed later, this is not Europe\u2019s war to fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope is not part of this war, we have not started this war and the political objectives are unclear,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Max Ramsay, Katharina Rosskopf, Joe Mayes, Oliver Crook and Daniel Basteiro.<\/p>\n
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\u00a92026 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photographer: David Hecker\/Getty Images (Bloomberg) — US allies deflected President Donald Trump\u2019s demands to help reopen the Strait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1824,10853,38,1092,10855,102,34,1486,10854,10617,101,10656],"class_list":{"0":"post-22191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-bloomberg","9":"tag-brussels","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-foreign-ministers","13":"tag-hormuz","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-nato","16":"tag-naval-mission","17":"tag-prime-minister-keir-starmer","18":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","19":"tag-xavier-bettel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116240378979728695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}