United States President Donald Trump has said \u201cmany countries\u201d will dispatch warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, without offering details about which states are on board.<\/p>\n
This comes as the waterway that carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas remains effectively closed on the 15th day of the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Writing on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said nations, \u201cespecially those affected by Iran\u2019s attempted closure\u201d of the strait, would be sending warships \u201cin conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,\u201d naming China, France, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom among those he hoped would contribute.<\/p>\n In the post, Trump asserted that the US had \u201calready destroyed 100% of Iran\u2019s Military capability,\u201d while conceding in the same breath that Tehran could still \u201csend a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile\u201d along the waterway.<\/p>\n He pledged that in the meantime, the US would be \u201cbombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water,\u201d promising to get the strait \u201cOPEN, SAFE, and FREE.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, Alireza Tangsiri, the navy chief of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said, \u201cThe Strait of Hormuz has not yet been militarily closed and is merely under control.\u201d<\/p>\n In a post on X, he hit back against Trump\u2019s comments, saying, \u201cAmericans falsely claimed the destruction of Iran\u2019s navy. Then they falsely claimed the escorting of oil tankers. Now they\u2019re even asking others for backup forces.\u201d<\/p>\n In a follow-up post on Truth Social, Trump said, \u201cThe Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help \u2014 A LOT!\u201d<\/p>\n He said the US would \u201ccoordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well,\u201d calling it a \u201cteam effort\u201d.<\/p>\n Last week, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told US news outlet CNBC that the US was not ready to do escorts for ships through the strait itself.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi clarified that the strait was only closed to \u201ctankers and ships of enemies and their allies,\u201d not all shipping, while Mohsen Rezaee, a member of Iran\u2019s Expediency Discernment Council, an influential body close to the supreme leader, said, \u201cNo American ship has the right to enter the Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n Two Indian-flagged tankers carrying liquefied petroleum gas crossed the strait safely on Saturday morning, Rajesh Kumar Sinha, special secretary of India\u2019s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, said.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s ambassador to India, Mohammad Fathali, confirmed that Tehran had granted Indian vessels a rare exemption, the result of direct talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday.<\/p>\n A Turkish-owned vessel was similarly allowed through earlier this week after Ankara negotiated passage directly with Tehran, with 14 more Turkish vessels still awaiting clearance.<\/p>\n The US is reinforcing its presence in the region, with some 2,500 Marines and the USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship en route to the Middle East following a request by CENTCOM approved by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera\u2019s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, said Iran\u2019s most powerful remaining weapon was not military but economic, adding that the threat of damage alone to US ships is paralysing the strait and the goods that flow through it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why we see the US president suggesting this coalition needs to be broadened,\u201d Halkett said.<\/p>\n The closure is also threatening global food security, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n The strait is a critical conduit for LNG exports, the primary feedstock for the nitrogen-based fertilisers used to grow the staple grains and cereals that provide more than 40 percent of global caloric intake.<\/p>\n India, facing a critical cooking gas shortage, has invoked emergency powers to protect 333 million LPG-dependent homes.<\/p>\n UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher has warned that \u201cmillions of people are at risk\u201d if humanitarian cargo cannot pass safely through the strait.<\/p>\n Hegseth dismissed suggestions that the Pentagon had been caught off guard by the strait\u2019s closure on Saturday. \u201cWe have been dealing with it, and don\u2019t need to worry about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At least 1,444 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on February 28, with Lebanon\u2019s death toll also mounting and Gulf states facing sustained drone and missile fire.<\/p>\n Andreas Krieg, a Middle East security expert at King\u2019s College London\u2019s School of Security Studies, told Al Jazeera that Trump\u2019s call for a coalition appeared to mask the absence of a broader plan to address the strait\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t seem like they had a plan for the Strait of Hormuz to be closed, and it seems like a desperate move in an information campaign to calm markets and that something magical will happen to open the straits short of actually engaging with the Iranian regime,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Krieg said there was no quick military solution to reopening the strait, as all Iran needed to do was strike occasionally to keep insurers away.<\/p>\n Sending naval vessels without a diplomatic agreement, he said, would only expose \u201cvery, very expensive military vessels to very cheap but potentially very effective projectiles\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n United States President Donald Trump has said \u201cmany countries\u201d will dispatch warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, without offering details about which states are on board. This comes as the waterway that carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas remains effectively closed on the 15th day of the US and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/INTERACTIVE-Strait-of-Hormuz-March-2-2026-1772714221.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n\u2018No American ship\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Millions\u2019 at risk<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"