PNN – The British news agency wrote that NATO and Trump have been at odds over their refusal to join the US in the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, US allies in NATO announced on Monday that they would not participate in Donald Trump’s plan to block the Strait of Hormuz. The move will increase tensions in the increasingly fragile alliance.
Reuters wrote in an analysis on Monday: Trump said the U.S. military would work with other countries to block all maritime traffic through the waterway after weekend talks failed to reach an agreement to end a six-week standoff with Iran. But NATO allies including Britain and France have said they will not join the blockade, saying instead that it is vital to reopen the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, and which Iran has effectively closed since the conflict began on Feb. 28.
Their refusal to participate is another point of friction with Trump, who has threatened to withdraw from NATO and is considering withdrawing some US troops from Europe, according to the report.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: We do not support a blockade. My decision is very clear and we will not go to war.
Several European countries have said they are willing to help in the Strait of Hormuz, but only if there is a lasting end to hostilities and an agreement with Iran that their ships will not be attacked.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, a fellow NATO member, said on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz should be reopened through diplomacy. He added that creating an international force to monitor it would be complicated.
He called for a renewal of NATO ties with Trump at the July summit in Ankara.