Donald Trump warns NATO faces

Donald Trump has warned that NATO faces a “very bad” future if US allies fail to help open the Strait of Hormuz, sending a clear message to European countries to join Iran in their war effort.

The US president told the FT in an interview on Sunday that he may delay his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month as he pressures Beijing to help resolve the vital waterway.

“It’s only right that the people who are the beneficiaries of the strait would help make sure nothing bad happens there,” Trump said. He argued that Europe and China, unlike the US, are heavily dependent on oil from the Gulf.

“If there is no reaction or it is a negative reaction I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” he said.

Trump’s comments, made in an eight-minute phone call with the FT, came a day after he appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to join a “team effort” to open the chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

Indeed, Iran closed the strait after the US and Israel launched a war more than two weeks ago, raising fears of a new oil price shock to the global economy. American efforts to open the waterway have largely failed. International oil prices reached $106 a barrel on Sunday evening, up nearly 45 percent since the war began.

Despite his warning, Trump was pessimistic that US allies would heed his appeal for help.

“We have a thing called NATO,” said Trump, who has often criticized the alliance. “We’re very good. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us… but we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve said a long time ago that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure they’ll be there.”

Asked what help he needed, Trump said, “Whatever it takes.” He said the allies should send minesweepers, of which Europe has far more than the United States.

He also wanted people who were going to weed out some of the bad actors [Iranian] shore”. Trump indicated that he wanted European commando teams or other military help to eliminate the Iranians causing a “nuisance” in the Gulf with drones and naval mines.

“We’re hitting them very hard,” Trump said. “They have nothing left to do except cause a little trouble in the Straits, but these guys are the beneficiaries and they should help us control it. We’ll help them. But they should also be there. You need a lot of people to keep an eye on a few people.”

Trump said he hoped China would help open the strait before he travels to Beijing later this month for a summit with Xi Jinping, his first visit to China in his second term.

“I think China should also help because China gets 90 percent of its oil through the Straits [sic]”It would be too late to wait until the summit,” Trump said.

“We would like to know before that. It is.” [two weeks is] A long time.” He said his trip to China also could be postponed. “We could delay,” Trump said, but did not say for how long.

The US President’s comments came as his Treasury Secretary Scott Besant met his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Paris for talks about a planned summit in Beijing in late March.

Xi invited Trump to visit China when the two leaders met in South Korea in late October and agreed on a US-China trade and technology war. Beijing has shown no signs of delaying the summit despite the war in Iran, a major oil supplier to China.

Speaking to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Sunday, Trump expressed particular disappointment at Britain’s response so far.

“Britain is supposed to be the number one ally, the longest serving, etcetera, etcetera, and when I asked them to come, they didn’t want to come,” he said. “And as soon as we basically eliminated the threat capability from Iran, they said, ‘Oh OK, we’ll send two ships,’ and I said, ‘We need these ships before we win, not after we win.’ “I have long said that NATO is a one-way street.”

He claimed that any threat to allies moving assets to the Gulf would be minimal as the US and Israel have destroyed Iran’s military capability over the past two weeks.

“We have essentially destroyed Iran,” Trump said. “They have no navy, no anti-aircraft guns, no air force, everything is gone. The only thing they can do is put a mine in the water and cause a little nuisance – a nuisance, but nuisances can cause problems.”

However, the European allies had already suffered losses in the war. A French soldier was killed in an Iranian drone attack in Iraq on Thursday. An Italian plane was destroyed in Kuwait on Sunday.

Trump also warned that the US was prepared to launch new attacks on Kharg Island, Iran’s oil export hub, and could target its oil infrastructure.

“You saw we attacked Kharg Island yesterday, everything except the pipes,” he said, referring to the bombing attack announced on Friday. “We can kill it in five minutes. And there’s nothing they can do about it.”

Asked whether Russia was helping Iran by using satellite data to target US and Israeli anti-missile shields, Trump said, “I don’t know one way or the other. But you can also say we helped Ukraine to some extent. It’s hard to say: ‘You’re targeting us, but we’re helping Ukraine.’

The president claimed Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden had given $350 billion in cash and equipment to Ukraine. “So it’s hard to say: ‘Hey what are you doing?’ When we’re doing the same thing.”

Additional reporting by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington