The U.S. went to war without its allies. Now it wants their help

Who is going to secure the narrow waterway through which 20% of the world's oil travels?

We're talking about the Strait of Hormuz and about President Trump's demand that about

seven countries send warships to reopen the vital shipping route.

On Saturday and a truth social post, Trump called out China, also France, Japan, South Korea

and the United Kingdom to help the United States protect the area.

Trump added, he hopes they would quote, send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait

will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated.

Here's Trump speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.

I really am demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because

it is their territory.

It's the place from which they get their energy and they should come and they should

help us protecting.

They should help us protect it, he's saying, now all of this is happening three weeks

after the US and Israel launched war against Iran and without having built a coalition

to protect the world's oil.

Consider this, can the US get its allies to help after going to war with Iran and if they

do, can the Strait of Hormuz really be secured?

From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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It's considered this from NPR.

President Trump launched the war against Iran without building a coalition of US allies.

Only now is the president trying to enlist allies to help end Iran's effective shutdown

of the Strait of Hormuz.

And many of the countries he's asked are rejecting Trump's request.

To talk this through, I am joined by NPR National Security Correspondent, Greg Meyri, Greg.

Hi, Mary Louise.

And White House correspondent Franco Ordonia's, hi Franco.

Hi there.

You kick us off Franco.

President Trump wants other countries to help make the Gulf safe for oil tankers to pass

through.

Or other countries inclined to help?

Yeah, I was with him this weekend in Florida when he said he was actually demanding that

seven countries send warships to help escort these oil vessels through the critical choke

point.

And he called on specifically China, France, the UK, Japan, and South Korea to help.

Today he teased that they'll be announcing a number of countries who are going to help,

but he would not name any specific ones.

But he also acknowledged that some longtime allies don't want to get involved, and he

was clearly not happy about that.

Numerous countries have told me they're on the way.

Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some are in some of the countries that we've

helped for many, many years.

We've protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren't that enthusiastic.

But Franco explain why US allies are not that enthusiastic to use the president's words.

Is this because they are opposed to the war?

Because they think this particular mission is dangerous, or because President Trump has

been insulting them regularly.

Yeah, I think it's a mix of all of those.

I mean, the German defense minister, though, declared that this is not our war.

We did not start it, adding that he wanted a diplomatic solution.

The British prime minister, Kier Starmer, he said at a news conference that the UK will

not be drawn into a wider war despite any political pressure.

Trump, again, is particularly unhappy with the UK.

So definitely some political differences, but Trump also seemed to indicate some security

concerns.

He talked about the Iranian Navy and Air Force having very little firepower left.

He seems to be aimed at reassuring these allies that there's only a small risk for

helping them out.

Greg, just to back us up, what, what me through how oil tanker escorts have worked in

past?

Because the US has done it.

Remind us when and how?

Yeah.

That's exactly right.

Iran and Iraq fought this brutal war through most of the 1980s in both those countries attack

the ships and oil facilities of the other side.

And by 1987, the US agreed to launch a naval convoy to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers from

Iranian attacks.

US flags were raised on Kuwaiti oil tankers and the US Navy ships escorted these tankers

from one end of the Gulf to the other.

This is 600 miles or so.

And overall, this went very well.

It achieved what it was trying to do, but there were some serious problems along the

way.

During this operation, an Iraqi plane mistakenly fired on a US ship, the USS Stark.

The Iraqi thought this was an Iranian ship, and 37 US sailors were killed.

Which dozens of US sailors being killed is obviously not something anyone wants to repeat.

Could this perhaps even be more complicated now?

Absolutely.

And one key reason is simply drones.

They just weren't a factor in the 1980s.

Now Iran has them by the thousands, and it's probably impossible to eliminate all of them

and fully extinguish this threat.

Iran can easily launch drones from land and target ships in the narrow, straight-of-harm

moves.

It's just 21 miles wide at the narrowest point.

And Trump says the US has wiped out Iran's mind-laying boats, more than 30 of them.

But Iran has these small speed boats or patrol boats that they could use to attack as well.

So the US isn't flicking this major damage on Iran's traditional weapons, but it'll

be very difficult to account for all the small mobile weapons, particularly fast boats

and drones.

And just one final key point on that, this would be so much larger than it was before.

Today, there are more than 1,000 ships in the Gulf trying to get into the Gulf or out

of the Gulf.

And the US has around 20 Navy ships in the region.

Franco, it would seem President Trump has created and now find himself in a tough situation.

Was this avoidable?

Yeah, I mean, clearly the US made a choice to go at this alone with Israel.

And with, as with so many other global issues, Trump moved forward with little to no consultation

with European allies.

And those allies were very surprised.

And since kind of taking this defensive posture, both tactically and politically.

So I think you do have to wonder if the US had consulted with these allies before would

such an ask that he's making now be different.

Maybe he never would have gotten the buy-in, but if he did, I think you can say it could

be different.

Greg Bottomline, can President Trump end this war before he finds a way to reopen the

Strait of Hormuz?

Well, that's looking increasingly difficult.

Initially, it seemed he could end this war more or less when he wanted.

Now he's looking at a global economic problem that didn't exist before this war was launched

and one that would be very hard to walk away from.

So as of today, Iran controls the oil flow and could continue to exert this control if

Trump decided to end the war and just pull out US troops.

All right, NPR correspondent Greg Myrie and Franco Ordonia, thanks to you both.

Sure thing, Mary Louise.

This episode was produced by Jeffrey Pierre and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering

by Ted Meban.

It was edited by Andrew Sussman, Rebecca Metzler, and Courtney Doerning.

Our executive producer is Sammy Young again.

It's considered this, from NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

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