WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Monday repeated his call to nations to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, and appeared to criticize countries he said were not enthusiastic about providing aid.
Trump wants nations to help police the strait after Iran responded to U.S.-Israeli attacks by using drones, missiles and mines to effectively close the channel for tankers that usually transport a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas.
“Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t. Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.” Trump said at an event at the White House.
Several U.S. allies said on Monday they had no immediate plans to send ships to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson, Humeyra Pamuk and Trevor Hunnicutt;Editing by David Ljunggren)
