TRUMP SAYS HELP FROM ALLIES TO SECURE STRAIT NOT NEEDED
US-based Iran human rights group HRANA said on Monday that an estimated 3,000-plus people have been killed in Iran since the US-Israeli attacks began at the end of February. Iranian attacks have killed people in Iraq and across the Gulf states, as well as Israel. More than 900 people have died since Israel began attacks on Lebanon on Mar 2, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Strait of Hormuz, a transit point for a fifth of the global oil trade, remains largely closed as Iran threatens to attack tankers linked to the US and Israel. Oil prices have soared.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated allied countries in recent days for their cool response to his requests for military help to restore the passage of oil tankers through the strait.
Most US allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have told Trump they don’t want to get involved in the conflict, he said on Tuesday, describing their position as “a very foolish mistake”.
“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need’, or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance – WE NEVER DID!” Trump wrote on social media, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in an interview that nobody was ready to risk the lives of their people in protecting the strait.
“We have to find diplomatic ways to keep this open so that we don’t have a food crisis, fertiliser crisis, energy crisis as well,” Kallas said.
The US has given shifting rationales for joining Israel to attack Iran and struggled to explain the legal basis for starting a new war, underscored by the resignation of the head of the US National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent on Tuesday. Kent wrote in his resignation letter to Trump that Iran “posed no imminent threat to our nation”.