Trump pressures NATO, China over Iran’’s closure of key waterway

TEHRAN (AFP) — United States President Donald Trump urged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) partners and China to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the critical conduit for crude that Iran has effectively closed, as major economic players began releasing oil reserves on Monday to ward off supply disruptions.

Global oil prices have surged by 40 to 50 percent after Iran choked off the waterway and attacked energy and shipping industry targets in the Gulf in retaliation for the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.

Crude prices were hovering around $100 per barrel on Monday as the Middle East war entered its third week.

Trump said the US was in discussions with Iran but that Tehran was not ready for a deal to end the war, although the Islamic republic’s foreign minister had earlier denied any talks with Washington.

“I don’t think they’re ready. But they are getting pretty close,” Trump said.

The US president had called on countries including China, France, Japan, South Korea and Britain at the weekend to send ships to escort tankers through the strait.

“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the Financial Times on Sunday. Unlike the US, Europe and China are heavily dependent on the Gulf for oil imports.

Trump threatened to delay a planned summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month if Beijing does not assist with reopening the strait.

He also warned that no response or a negative reply to his request would be “very bad for the future of NATO,” the western military alliance comprising of European countries and the US.

But Tokyo and Canberra both said they were not planning deployments.

Trump’s comments came after Iran warned other countries against getting involved in the war, which has spread across the Middle East.

In a phone conversation with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot, Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi called on other countries to “refrain from any action that could lead to escalation and expansion of the conflict.”

Arguing that the US security umbrella in the region was “inviting rather than deterring trouble,” Araghchi on X urged neighboring countries “to expel foreign aggressors.”