Donald Trump has demanded Britain send warships to help defend the Strait of Hormuz and avert a global recession.
The US President had previously slapped down Sir Keir Starmer, saying earlier this month that his offer of assistance was no longer needed because the war was already won.
But on a day of escalating tension in which Tehran threatened to use helicopters to kidnap US soldiers, Mr Trump urged the UK to join an international armada to force open the blockaded Strait, where Iran has begun laying mines.
It came as Iran’s foreign minister confirmed in an interview that his country was receiving military help from Russia and China.
[They] are our strategic partners, and we have had close cooperation in the past, which is still continuous, and that includes military cooperation,’ said Abbas Araghchi.
In recent days at least six ships have been hit by projectiles or explosive-laden boats in Hormuz – the choke-point through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes – and the wider Persian Gulf. Mr Trump said: ‘We have already destroyed 100 per cent of Iran’s military capability.
‘But it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close-range missile somewhere along, or in, this waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.’
He hopes Britain, China and France, among others, ‘will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be threatened by a nation that has been totally decapitated’.
Donald Trump has demanded Britain sends warships to the Middle East to help defend the Strait of Hormuz
A fireball and thick smoke rise into the sky at an oil facility in Fujairah, in the UAE, which authorities said was caused by debris from an intercepted drone
Donald Trump shared an image of a strike on Kharg Island – which handles 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports
In response, the Ministry of Defence said only that it was ‘discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region’. Last week, the UK deployed HMS Dragon, a Type 45 destroyer, to protect Britain’s military base in Cyprus.
Of other assets potentially available, two destroyers are deemed ‘operational’, but the remaining three are in deep maintenance.
It was suggested HMS Prince of Wales, the only currently deployable aircraft carrier in Britain’s fleet, could be sent, after it was given orders to be ready to sail within five days. Instead it is thought the ship will be sent to the Arctic on a joint Nato operation.
Mr Trump’s plea for help followed the most devastating bombing raid of the war yet.
He boasted of ‘obliterating’ military facilities on Kharg Island off the coast of Iran – home to a major oil terminal considered the country’s economic lifeline.
US defence chiefs said the blitz on the island left naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and multiple other sites completely destroyed.
The President said the precision strikes left the island’s oil infrastructure intact but warned that could change should Iran or others ‘do anything to interfere’ with the safe passage of ships through the Strait. And he warned that the US will continue ‘bombing the hell out of the shoreline’ of Iran in a drive to break the blockade.
In other developments in the Middle East yesterday:
- The US said it was sending another 5,000 Marines and sailors to the region, with more warships
- A former Iranian minister warned the regime would use helicopters to kidnap US forces from Gulf military bases if Trump orders a land assault on Kharg Island. Former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said: ‘Why shouldn’t we go to a part of their soil carry out a helicopter landing there, and capture their forces?
- Iran claimed that oil exports from the island were continuing as normal, but vowed to destroy oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms working with the US;
- Air strikes continued across the Middle East, with sirens sounding in Jerusalem after the Israeli military said it had detected new attacks from Iran
- An Iranian official warned UAE residents to stay away from ports, docks and US military areas ‘to avoid any harm’
- A missile attack struck the US embassy in Baghdad, which urged all US citizens to leave Iraq.
About 2,200 US Marines on board USS Tripoli are expected to arrive in the region ‘in ten to 14 days’.
Speaking on Air Force One last night Mr Trump said US warships would start escorting oil tankers through the Strait ‘very, very soon.’
The Marines are trained to unblock shipping routes and are likely – as Iran fears – to try to seize Kharg Island to protect vessels from attack.
USS Tripoli is an amphibious assault ship with an extended landing deck equipped with F-35 supersonic stealth fighters, Osprey and Seahawk helicopters with door-mounted machine guns. It also boasts the heavy transporter King Stallion and Viper attack helicopters.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Vladimir Putin proposed relocating Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia in a phone call with Mr Trump last week.
The Russian president is said to have suggested the idea, among several others, as part of a deal to end the war between the US and Iran. Mr Trump reportedly rejected the proposal, which Moscow made several times before the current war broke out.
Has anyone told him some of our fleet don’t work in warm water?
By Glen Owen and Brendan Carlin
The Royal Navy was slow to scramble a destroyer to the war zone amid fears some of its ships were unable to operate in warm water, The Mail on Sunday understands.
Britain’s response to the crisis has been criticised after HMS Dragon – dispatched to help defend a UK military base in Cyprus from Iranian drones – was a week late leaving the UK.
It left Portsmouth on Tuesday but only departed UK waters yesterday after ‘bobbing about’ for three days while crewing arrangements were finalised. It had previously been delayed to make the ship seaworthy.
Now this newspaper has been told that the main reason why the Dragon was scrambled to the region was because a sister ship on standby was potentially unable to operate in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.
HMS Dragon has already been deployed to defend a British military base in Cyprus
HMS Dragon’s sister ship, HMS Duncan, was in readiness to be deployed – but had yet to undergo a Power Improvement Programme (PIP) to stop the ship’s turbines from cutting out in warm waters.
It emerged as far back as 2016 that the six Type 45 destroyers ordered during the last Labour government at £630 million each, all had engine problems. Their advanced design, which uses two Rolls-Royce jet engines and two diesel generators, struggles to cope in waters such as the Mediterranean and the Gulf.
The MoD began upgrading the engines systems under the PIP programme, but HMS Duncan had still not been upgraded. It was replaced by HMS Dragon, which has been upgraded but was not ready to sail.
Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West said: ‘There isn’t a single warship between Singapore and Gibraltar. It’s astonishing that no one had the geopolitical sense to make these decisions earlier.’
Yesterday, the MoD said the engine problem was not why Duncan didn’t sail but declined to say what was.
