Trump says US will reveal coalition to assist in Hormuz
· RTE.ieDonald Trump has lamented that "some countries are not very enthusiastic" about heeding his call to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while also saying the US will give details of a coalition which is being assembled.
He increased the pressure on Britain and France, saying he expected them to help secure shipping in the strategically critical waterway during the war against Iran.
Mr Trump said he had talked with French President Emmanuel Macron about it and the French leader's response had been "an eight, not perfect".
"I think he's going to help," Mr Trump said, adding that he also thinks the UK could be involved in a Hormuz mission.
He gave no concrete details, only saying that his Secretary of State Marco Rubio would announce the "coalition".
Neither country has confirmed any involvement in a US-led mission to the strait.
A Downing Street spokesperson confirmed that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the need to reopen the strait with Mr Trump and with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, but made no mention of a mission having been agreed.
EU foreign ministers have "no appetite" for extending the bloc's Red Sea naval mission to help re-open the strait, its top diplomat said after talks in Brussels.
Restarting the flow of shipments of "fertilisers, food and energy" was an "urgent priority", Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, told a press conference.
But a proposal to change the mandate of the EU's naval mission in the Red Sea, Operation Aspides, to help with securing the strait drew little enthusiasm from member states, she added.
"There was in our discussions a clear wish to strengthen this operation, but for the time being, there was no appetite in changing the mandate," Ms Kallas said, after a meeting with foreign ministers from the EU's 27 nations in the Belgian capital.
"Nobody wants to go actively in this war," she added.
Trump says Iran's supreme leader may or may not be dead
Mr Trump also claimed that Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei may be dead but the United States is not certain.
"We don't know ... if he's dead or not. I will say that nobody has seen him, which is unusual," he said during an event at the Kennedy Center in the White House.
After Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed in the initial strikes of the war on 28 February, Tehran announced last week that his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had been named as his successor.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said last week the new leader was believed to have been wounded in a strike. He has not been seen publicly.
"A lot of people are saying that he's badly disfigured. They're saying that he lost his leg ... and he's been hurt very badly. Other people are saying he's dead," Mr Trump said.
He also said Iran "wants to make a deal" and is talking with US officials.
However, he added: "All of their leaders are dead. We do not even know who we are dealing with."
'Very bad' future - Trump
Japan and Australia said earlier that they are not planning to send navy vessels to the Middle East to escort ships, while South Korea has said it would carefully review Mr Trump's request.
The US president has already claimed that NATO faces a "very bad" future if its members fail to come to Washington's aid.
With the US-Israeli war on Iran creating turmoil across the Middle East and shaking up global energy markets in its third week, Mr Trump is demanding that nations relying heavily on oil from the Gulf pitch in to protect the strait through which 20% of the world's energy transits, and which has been effetively closed by Iran.
Markets in Asia opened cautiously, with Brent crude rising more than 1% above $104.50 and regional share markets mostly weaker after Mr Trump's comments about enlisting other countries to help safeguard the strait.
"I'm demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory," Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington.
"It’s the place from which they get their energy," he added.
Mr Trump said his administration has already contacted seven countries, but did not identify the countries.
In a weekend social media post he said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said her country, constrained by its war-renouncing constitution, has no plan to dispatch naval vessels to escort ships in the Middle East.
"We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships," Ms Takaichi told parliament.
"We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done within the legal framework," added Ms Takaichi.
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Australia, another key Indo-Pacific ally to the US, said it had not been asked and will not send naval ships to assist in reopening the strait either.
"We know how incredibly important that is, but that's not something that we've been asked or that we're contributing to," Catherine King, a member of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's cabinet, said in an interview with state broadcaster ABC.
Mr Trump told the Financial Times yesterday that he was expecting China to help unblock the strait before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of this month and might postpone his trip if it did not provide assistance.
"I think China should help too because China gets 90% of its oil from the straits," Mr Trump said.
"We may delay," he said in reference to his visit if China did not offer support in the Gulf.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Although some Iranian vessels have continued to pass and a few ships from other countries have successfully made the crossing, the passage has been effectively closed for most of the world's tanker traffic since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February at the start of an intensive bombing campaign that has hit thousands of targets across the country.
Despite repeated claims from US authorities to have destroyed Iran's military capabilities, drone attacks continued to threaten Gulf states.
Dubai authorities said they had contained a fire but temporarily suspended flights at the airport, a major international hub, after a drone attack hit a fuel tank.
Saudi Arabia intercepted 34 drones in its eastern region in one hour, state media said.
No injuries were reported in either incident.
US officials responding to economic uncertainty over high oil prices predicted yesterday that the war on Iran would end within weeks and that a drop in energy costs would follow, despite Iran's assertion that it remains "stable and strong" and ready to defend itself.
Mr Trump, who threatened more strikes on Iran's main oil export hub Kharg Island over the weekend, has said previously that Iran wants to negotiate.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi yesterday disputed that claim.
"We have never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiations," Mr Araghchi told CBS' Face the Nation programme.
"We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes," he added.