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Middle East crisis live: European countries resist Trump’s demand for help to clear the strait of Hormuz

Sri Lanka has decided to close government offices, universities and schools on every Wednesday as a part of measures to save energy and manage a potential fuel crisis arising from the US-Israeli war with Iran. The move came a day after the government imposed a strict fuel rationing system aimed at preventing panic buying. Bangladesh brought in similar restrictions on 6 March, introducing daily limits on fuel sales amid reports of panic buying. Sri Lanka faced a massive fuel shortage for months that sparked huge protests in 2022 and the eventual ousting of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who is widely seen as having driven the country into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.

China ‘still communicating’ with US over Trump visit despite talk of delay

China says it is in communication with the US about Donald Trump’s planned visit to Beijing, despite hints from the US president that he might delay the trip if his prospective hosts do not help to unblock the strait of Hormuz. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said: “Head-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role in China-US relations. The two sides are maintaining communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China.” Trump had suggested the highly anticipated trip to Beijing this month could be suspended if China did not respond to the US’s request for help from third countries in securing the strait of Hormuz. The strait is a crucial passage for international trade, which has been disrupted by the US-Israeli war with Iran. On Monday, White House officials said the trip could be delayed because of the Iran war. Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said this was because of “logistics” and not because of any spat about Chinese support in the Middle East. He said: “We will see whether the visit takes place as scheduled. But what I do want to parse – and there’s a false narrative out there – that if the meetings are delayed, it wouldn’t be delayed because the president’s demanded that China police the strait of Hormuz.” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said it was “quite possible” the meeting would be delayed. Trump is due to be in Beijing from 31 March to 2 April, where he will meet Xi Jinping, China’s president. In an interview published by the Financial Times on Sunday, the US president said: “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there. “I think China should help too because China gets 90% of its oil from the straits.” China imports about 50% of its crude oil through the strait of Hormuz. Beijing has declined to address Trump’s requests, made over the weekend, for other countries to send warships to help secure the vital shipping route. On Monday, Lin called for a ceasefire in Iran to “prevent further escalation of tensions, avoid turmoil in the region, and prevent greater impacts on global economic development”. He said China was “maintaining communication with all parties” about the situation and was committed to promoting “de-escalation and easing tensions”. Tehran has effectively closed the vital waterway, through which about 20% of the world’s oil passes, in retaliation for airstrikes by the US and Israel that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The blockage has caused the largest oil supply disruption in history and sent global oil prices soaring. China is reportedly in talks with the Iranian regime about allowing oil tankers to pass through from the Gulf, but no definitive outcome has been agreed. Trump and Xi met in South Korea in October and agreed a temporary truce to the US-China trade war that shook the global economy last year. Bessent and the Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng are due to conclude trade talks in Paris on Monday before the Xi-Trump summit. The two sides have been discussing possible agreements on agricultural and critical mineral trade, with Reuters reporting that the talks have been “remarkably stable” despite the chaotic international environment. In recent weeks, China has declined to comment on whether Trump’s launch of a major war in the Middle East involving a key Chinese strategic partner would undermine the forthcoming Xi-Trump summit. A face-to-face meeting between the two leaders is seen as vital to restoring stability between the world’s two biggest economies. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said in a statement to CNN on Sunday: “China will continue to strengthen communication with relevant parties, including parties to the conflict, and play a constructive role for de-escalation and restoration of peace.” Although China has not officially commented on how recent events may influence the summit, nationalist bloggers and state media suggested that the meeting could be called into question. Niu Tanqin, an influential foreign affairs blog with ties to Chinese state media, said the “United States was actually begging China to help clean up the mess” created in Iran. Ren Yi, a nationalist Chinese commentator whose comments are often close to Beijing’s position, wrote on X: “The US openly tramples on international law, launching outrageous attacks against a sovereign state (which also happens to be China’s friendly partner), drawing increasing condemnation and resistance from the international community. Under such circumstances, why expect China to ‘roll out the red carpet’ for Trump?” Additional research by Yu-Chen Li

European countries reject Trump’s call for help to reopen strait of Hormuz

European countries have ruled out sending warships to the strait of Hormuz, despite threats from Donald Trump that Nato faces “a very bad future” if members fail to help reopen the vital waterway. Germany ruled out participation in any military activity, including efforts to reopen the strait. “This is not our war, we have not started it,” said the country’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius. “What does Donald Trump expect from a handful of European frigates in the strait of Hormuz that the mighty US navy cannot manage alone? This is the question I find myself asking,” Pistorius said. A spokesperson for Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said on Monday that Nato was “an alliance for the defence of territory” and that mandate was lacking. Keir Starmer said the UK would not be “drawn into the wider war” but was working on “a viable plan”. “Ultimately, we have to reopen the strait of Hormuz to ensure stability in the [oil] market. That is not a simple task,” said the prime minister. He did not rule out any form of action but said it would have to be agreed by as “many partners as possible”. European politicians have emphasised diplomatic efforts to reopen the strait, which carried about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquified fossil gas until its effective closure by Iran. Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Monday that “diplomacy needs to prevail” and his country was involved in no naval missions that could be extended to the area. He cast doubt on expanding the remit of existing EU missions in the Red Sea to the strait of Hormuz, “since they are anti-piracy and defensive missions”. The position taken by the three major European countries was striking because they had avoided criticising Trump over his decision, alongside Israel, to attack Iran 16 days ago. Soon after the first strikes, the US president said the goal of the military campaign was regime change, but the war has since become a wider regional conflict, causing energy prices to soar. Australia, France and Japan have said they had no plans to send warships. Trump had called on other countries to enter the war by sending ships to the strait to protect commercial vessels and unblock oil shipments. Raising the pressure, he told the Financial Times in an interview: “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there. If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato.” European Union foreign ministers held talks on Monday about options to reopen the strait of Hormuz but remained divided over whether to extend the remit of their small naval mission in the Red Sea, an idea that was circulating before Trump’s call for help. Greece, which provides the headquarters for Operation Aspides, also said on Monday it would not engage in any military operations in the strait. Israel said on Monday that it had launched a “wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure” in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz. It also claimed that overnight strikes had destroyed a plane used by Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at Mehrabad airport in Tehran. According to Israeli officials, the plane had been used by senior Iranian political and military figures for domestic and international travel, as well as for coordination with partner states. An Israeli military spokesperson, Nadav Shoshani, told reporters that detailed operational plans were in place for the next three weeks, along with additional plans extending further ahead. “We want to make sure that they are as weak as possible, this regime, and that we degrade all their capabilities, all parts and all wings of their security establishment,” said the lieutenant colonel. The conflict is increasingly reverberating across the Gulf. Oil-loading operations were suspended at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah after a drone attack started a fire. Fujairah, on the Gulf of Oman just outside the strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for roughly a million barrels of crude a day – about 1% of global demand. Civil defence teams were working to contain the blaze, officials said, adding that no casualties had been reported. A separate drone-related incident near Dubai airport set a fuel tank ablaze and briefly disrupted flights. Air raid sirens also sounded across central Israel after Iran fired a missile that was intercepted, causing debris to fall near Tel Aviv. Loud explosions were heard over the Old City in Jerusalem. In a message published on Telegram on Monday morning, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, rejected the idea that Tehran was seeking a ceasefire. “Our refusal of a ceasefire does not mean we want war,” he said. “But this time the war must end in a way that our enemies will never think of repeating these attacks or this aggression again.” Israel has expanded its ground operations in southern Lebanon, moving troops to what it called “new locations” in its operations against Hezbollah. The deployment follows a rocket barrage fired at Israel by the Iran-backed group earlier this month. At least 850 people have been reported killed in Lebanon, including more than 100 children.

Trump draws backlash for comment on Iran war: ‘Maybe we shouldn’t even be there’

Donald Trump drew a backlash on Sunday for suggesting US efforts to protect the Strait of Hormuz were unnecessary – and that “maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all” because his country has plenty of oil of its own. The president made the contradictory comment to reporters on Air Force One after pleading with European and Nato allies to enter the war in Iran to help the US secure the strait amid the largest oil supply disruption in history. “Really, I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory – because it is their territory,” he said. “They should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all, because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil. We’re the number one producer anywhere in the world times two.” Trump received criticism in the early stages of the US and Israel’s three-week war in Iran for failing to convey clear reasons for launching military strikes. He has made a number of antithetical statements since, including telling the UK, which he called a “once great ally”, that its help was not needed in Operation Epic Fury. His comment on Sunday was similarly questioned in an immediate backlash on social media from critics who accused him of starting an unnecessary war – then demanding others step in to help him end it. One post referred to the families of the 13 US service members killed in the conflict as of Sunday – and how they might react to the president’s “shouldn’t even be there” suggestion. The cousin of Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, one of six airmen killed when a US refueling tanker crashed last week, told Ohio ABC News affiliate WCMH that family was experiencing “the worst nightmare we could ever imagine”. “This could have been prevented,” Stephan Douglas said in an interview before Trump made his Sunday night comments. “We didn’t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for, and this is what we get.” Separately, an editor at the progressive outlet MeidasTouch reposted a reply to video of Trump’s “shouldn’t even be there” comment which read: “Sorry, what was that?” Trump was speaking on the same day as he reversed his earlier position over outside assistance and stepped up pressure on a raft of other countries to become involved in defending the strait. Australia, France and Japan are among the countries that have said they have no plans to send warships. Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, said on Monday that he was working with European allies on “a viable plan” to reopen the strait – but insisted the country “will not be drawn into the wider war”. Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister, said his country would not give in to “blackmail” from the US. During the gaggle with reporters on Sunday as the president returned to Washington from a weekend at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, Trump suggested that the US effort to secure the strait was for the benefit of other countries. “It’s almost like we do it for habit, but we also do it for some very good allies that we have in the Middle East,” he said. Trump has said he was talking with a number of countries who he believed would help but did not identify them. In an earlier social media post, he said he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others would participate. In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday his tone was more menacing, warning that Nato faces a “very bad” future if it did not assist the US in protecting the strait from Iranian attacks. He also told the newspaper that he “may delay” traveling to a summit with Xi Jinping, the president of China, this week until he knew if China, an ally of Iran, would help.

What is the strait of Hormuz and can the US stop Iran from blocking it?

More than 1,000 cargo ships, mainly oil and gas tankers, have been blocked from transiting the strait of Hormuz by the Israeli-US war against Iran after Tehran closed the key maritime passage, with a potentially large global economic impact. Officials in the Trump administration have suggested an international naval taskforce to reopen the strait, but enthusiasm remains low from other countries to join it, with a number saying they had no plans to participate or offering only minimal assistance. What is the strait of Hormuz? The strait is the only maritime passage out of the Gulf and the route for about a quarter of the world’s liquefied natural gas and seaborne trade. Shipping is confined to a pair of two-mile-wide lanes, one for outbound traffic and one for incoming, separated by a two-mile-wide meridian. At its narrowest, the strait is just 21 nautical miles wide (24 miles), constrained on one side by the coast of Iran and on the other by the Musandam peninsula in Oman. As a global trade route in a politically complex region, the strait has historically been targeted for leverage – including during the “tanker war” in the Iran-Iraq conflict in the 1980s. In response to that threat, the US navy initiated Operation Earnest Will in 1987, the largest convoy operation since the second world war. What is Iran doing? In order to widen the geographic scope of the war and increase the global costs associated with it, Iran has attacked ships and reportedly started to lay mines in the strait, in effect closing it to marine traffic. Surely this would have been anticipated by Washington when it decided to attack Iran? US military planners have long warned that Iran could try to close the strait in the event of a conflict, but the Trump administration appears to have failed to anticipate such a response. Some analysts had bet that Iran would keep the strait open to ensure export of its own oil, but the existential threat to Tehran’s clerical regime has triggered a far harsher response. That in turn has caught Washington out, including the energy secretary, Chris Wright, who said on Thursday that the US navy could not yet carry out an escort operation. “We’re simply not ready,” he said, adding that “all of our military assets right now are focused on destroying” Iran’s military resources. Why is the US navy not able to provide escorts? It has long been understood by US military planners that countering an Iranian move to close the strait would be highly complex, reinforced by the experience of shipping being targeted by the Houthis in Yemen. The US has been targeting Iran’s larger naval forces, but the country also has small, fast boats that the US says have been used for mine laying in recent days. The proximity of the Iranian coast to launch missiles and drones against shipping creates its own issues, with transit lanes in some places only 3 to 4 miles from the Iranian shoreline. Flight times for drones and missiles are consequently very short, giving ships less than two minutes to react. Iran last week also used a remote-controlled boat laden with explosives to damage a crude oil tanker anchored in Iraqi waters. And while the US has one of the world’s largest and most powerful navies, that does not mean it has enough assets required for escort duties. Is there any enthusiasm for such a naval coalition? Despite a premature statement by Trump at the weekend that he saw the waterway being reopened soon by an international naval taskforce, the response so far has been tepid amid concerns over Washington’s vague war aims and fear of escalation. Trump has mentioned the UK, China, France, Japan and South Korea as potential participants, adding: “It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there.” He said on Monday that Nato faces a “very bad” future should its member states fail to help. At present, however, there is no international coalition. China, which has one of the world’s largest navies, has so far made no comment on Trump’s request, nor on its lack of response to questions about it. Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has also said Japan does not currently plan to dispatch naval vessels to the Middle East and confirmed the US had yet to make a formal request for assistance. Germany and Australia have also ruled out deploying naval forces, while the French foreign ministry has emphasised that its current military posture is aimed at ensuring regional stability rather than escalating the conflict. South Korea appeared to be slow-walking the US request for “careful consideration”. The UK has indicated it might send drone mine hunters, but ministers appear sceptical about deploying ships for the high-risk mission. What about sea mines? Iran has a variety of powerful sea mines available, some more crude than others, which can be deployed just below the surface or anchored to the seabed and be set off as deep as 50 metres (164ft) below the surface. The country has conventional mine-laying vessels but it can also use fishing boats and other small craft. Naval mines are a potent threat with a long history of damaging shipping, but also present a psychological threat and would increase the complexity of any convoy missions. Can the US counter Iranian shore batteries? Some analysts have suggested the size of the area involved and the availability of cheap and effective drones would require a ground operation to secure the coast along the strait, which in itself would probably be complicated. Late last week, 2,000 US marines from the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in Okinawa, were dispatched towards the Middle East along with their amphibious assault ships and are expected to reach the region in about two weeks. However, it is unlikely a force of that size would be sufficient for an operation to counter Iranian shore-based missile batteries.

Relative of US airman killed in Middle East crash calls war on Iran ‘uncalled for’

A relative of an Ohio airman who was killed recently in a military airplane crash in Iraq amid the US and Israel’s war in nearby Iran has said the conflict is “uncalled for”. “This could have been prevented,” Stephan Douglas said of the death of his cousin Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, 28, in an interview with the Ohio news outlet WCMH. “We didn’t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for – and this is what we get.” Simmons’s family urged US citizens to register to vote as a means of advocating for political change. “Families are suffering right now,” Simmons’s grandmother, Bernice Smith, told WCMH. Without explicitly mentioning Donald Trump’s presidential administration, she added: “Just to create a war because you want to create a war is not right.” Simmons was among six US service members killed when a KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed over Iraq on Thursday. Beside Simmons, two others of that group were also residents of Ohio, the state’s governor, Mike DeWine, said. “We share in the sorrow of their loved ones,” a social media post from the Ohio air national guard’s 121st air refueling wing said. “And we must not forget the valuable contributions these airmen made to their country and the impact they have left on our organization.” At a news conference on Friday, the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said: “War is hell – war is chaos. And as we saw … with the tragic crash of our KC-135 tanker, bad things can happen.” Hegseth said those killed in Thursday’s crash were “American heroes, all of them”. As of Monday, 13 US service members had been reported killed during operations related to the Iran conflict, which began on 28 February, when a missile strike killed the Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. The conflict has been marked with mixed rhetoric about what Trump would consider victory, confusing allies, enemies and US voters casting ballots in primary elections ahead of November’s midterm races. The Trump administration has also faced criticism for the bombing of a girls’ school in southern Iran, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children.

Africa particularly vulnerable as Iran conflict disrupts supply chains, say experts

Countries in Africa, where farmers depend heavily on imported fertiliser and a large share of household income goes on food, are particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East, experts have said. The conflict has drastically disrupted trade through the strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane not just for oil and gas but also for fertiliser, which is produced in vast quantities in the Gulf. African countries rank among the most reliant on fertiliser imports by sea from the Middle East. A report by the UN’s trade and development agency (Unctad) says 54% of Sudan’s fertiliser arrives in this way. The figures for Somalia and Kenya are 30% and 26% respectively. About one-third of seaborne trade in fertiliser, a vital agricultural input for productivity improvement, is transported through the strait of Hormuz. A lot of the world’s fertiliser is produced in the Gulf, which has an abundance of cheap fossil gas – critical in the manufacture of nitrogen-based fertilisers such as urea – and produces high amounts of sulphur, a byproduct used to make phosphate fertilisers. Fertiliser prices have soared since the war started last month, and Unctad says that may increase food costs and intensify cost of living pressures, particularly for the most vulnerable people. Rising oil and gas prices will have the same impact. African economies are highly vulnerable and face heightened uncertainty during big shocks, according to Unctad. Reasons include reliance on foreign markets, volatile commodity exports, high debt and weak infrastructure. Governments across Africa are already struggling with budgetary pressures and are therefore particularly vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. “Any disruptions, any shocks really affect all of us,” said Jervin Naidoo, a political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa, an advisory firm. XN Iraki, a professor of business and economics at the University of Nairobi, said the impact of higher oil prices would be felt “acutely” in Africa because most people on the continent worked in the informal sector, where there was “uncertain income”. Rama Yade, the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, said on X that rising oil prices posed “serious economic challenges” for many governments on the continent. Governments may be forced to increase subsidies or pass on the cost to consumers, “which could trigger social and political pressure”, she said. African countries are bracing themselves for the potential shocks. Kenya’s energy minister, Opiyo Wandayi, recently said the country had scheduled imports of petroleum products for delivery until the end of April. He added that the ministry would “continue taking necessary actions to ensure there is uninterrupted supply”. In Tanzania, the president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, has directed the country’s energy ministry to strengthen its strategic fuel reserves. Ethiopia has introduced a special fuel subsidy to cushion people from the economic shock of surging global oil prices, while Zambia has warned fuel retailers against hoarding the product. Naidoo said that while some countries had mechanisms such as subsidies to cushion people against high oil prices, they may not be enough to mitigate the effects in the long term. The continent faced similar shocks in 2022 when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine disrupted supply chains. On the other end of the supply chain, rising crude prices may mean higher revenues for oil exporters such as Nigeria, Algeria and Angola, as other countries turn to them. On the African supply side, the war is affecting African exports to the Middle East or through it by air and sea. Last week, Kenya’s agriculture minister, Mutahi Kagwe, said the conflict had disrupted the export of meat, tea and other food products to the Middle East.