US President Donald Trump said today that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will announce the names of the countries that will participate in a potential coalition to open the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Trump also said that he had spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron and believed that “he will help“.
The American president also repeated his call for US allies to help open the Strait of Hormuz and criticized the countries that, according to him, have not shown enthusiasm to provide assistance.
Trump corrected the call for US allies to help about opening the Strait of Hormuz after Iran effectively blocked the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and LNG supplies pass, in response to US-Israeli attacks, Reuters points out.
“Some are very enthusiastic and some are not. Some are countries that we have helped for many, many years. We have protected them from terrible outside sources, and they have not been very enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm is important to me“, Trump said during an event at the White House. He added that some countries have said they are willing to help, but did not say who they were.
Several U.S. allies said today they have no immediate plans to send ships to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also said he believes Iran wants to make a deal to end the war, but it was not clear who was speaking on behalf of Tehran. "We don't know their leaders," he said.
Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since his election, has appointed a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as his military adviser, local media reported, citing Agence France-Presse.
"General Mohsen Rezaei was appointed military adviser on the orders of Supreme Commander Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei," the Iranian Mehr news agency reported. Other local media outlets also confirmed this information.
Seventy-one-year-old Mohsen Rezaei was head of the IRGC from 1981 to 1997. He then held several senior positions in the Iranian political system.
During the reign of the previous Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Rahim Safavi was his military advisor.
Mojtaba Khamenei was elected supreme leader after the death of his father, who was killed on the first day of the Israeli-American strikes on February 28 that triggered the war that engulfed the entire Middle East region.
His office issued a statement saying that civil servants appointed by his father should continue to perform their duties.
Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded during the first day of the war. His first official address to the Iranians was broadcast on state television last week.
Europe is not involved in the war in Iran, Europe has no interest in a war with an unclear outcome, this is not Europe's war, but European interests are at stake, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas today.
The political goals of this war are unclear. Wars are easy to start and very difficult to end, she added at a press conference after today's meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels.
We discussed how to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. We have further expanded sanctions against Iran and this is a message that the country's future cannot be built on repression, Kallas pointed out. Two weeks after the start of the war in Iran, Tehran's military capabilities are limited, but a destructive shock wave has been raised for the economy and security. The participants in today's meeting indicated that their goal is to calm the situation and ensure freedom of navigation, added Kallas.
Despite the US decision on sanctions against Russian oil, the EU maintains its sanctions, she specified. If we want the war in Ukraine to end, Moscow must have less, not more, money to wage war. The adoption of decisions to impose new sanctions against Russia and to provide a loan for Ukraine of 90 billion euros is long overdue, added the High Representative. Kallas noted that today the European foreign ministers confirmed that Ukraine remains the EU's top security priority.