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U.S. President Donald Trump warned that NATO faces a "very bad" future if allies fail to assist in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, singled out Britain for its slow response, and threatened to delay his upcoming summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
He also warned of new strikes on Iran's oil infrastructure in an interview with the Financial Times (FT) published early Monday.
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"It's only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there," Trump told the FT in an eight-minute phone call, noting that Europe and China are heavily dependent on Gulf oil, unlike the U.S.
"If there's no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO," he stated.
Trump drew a direct comparison to U.S. support for Ukraine, saying, "We've been very sweet. We didn't have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us... But we helped them. Now we'll see if they help us. Because I've long said that we'll be there for them, but they won't be there for us. And I'm not sure that they'd be there."
Asked to specify what help he needed, Trump said: "whatever it takes."
He said allies should send minesweepers, of which Europe possesses many more than the U.S., and implied he also wanted European commando teams or other military help to eliminate Iranians making "a nuisance" in the Gulf with drones and naval mines.
"We're hitting them very hard. They've got nothing left but to make a little trouble in the Strait, but these people are beneficiaries, and they ought to help us police it. We'll help them. But they should also be there. You sort of need a lot of people to watch over a few," Trump added.
Trump expressed particular frustration with Britain's response, having spoken to Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier on Sunday.
"The U.K. might be considered the number one ally, the longest serving, et cetera, and when I asked for them to come, they didn't want to come," Trump said.
"And as soon as we basically wiped out the danger capacity from Iran, they said, 'Oh well, we'll send two ships', and I said, 'We need these ships before we win, not after we win.'. I've long said that NATO is a one-way street," he added.
He claimed any danger to allies moving assets into the Gulf would be minimal since the U.S. and Israel had destroyed Iran's military capacity over the past two weeks.
"We've essentially decimated Iran. They have no navy, no anti-aircraft, no air force; everything is gone. The only thing they can do is make a little trouble by putting a mine in the water, a nuisance, but the nuisance can cause problems," Trump noted.
European allies have already sustained losses in the war.
A French soldier was killed Thursday in an Iranian drone strike in Iraq. An Italian aircraft was destroyed on Sunday at a base in Kuwait.
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Trump noted that he expects China to help unblock the strait before he travels to Beijing for a summit with Xi scheduled from March 31 to April 2, his first trip to China in his second term.
"I think China should help too because China gets 90% of its oil from the Straits," Trump said.
Waiting until the summit would be too late, he said, adding, "We'd like to know before that. It's a long time."
He added that his trip to China might be delayed. "We may delay," Trump said, without specifying by how long.
Trump's comments came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met his Chinese counterpart, He Lifeng, in Paris for talks about the planned summit.
Xi had invited Trump to visit China when the two leaders met in South Korea at the end of October, when they reached a truce in the U.S.-China trade and technology war. Beijing has shown no sign of wanting to delay the summit, according to FT.
Trump again warned that the U.S. could strike Iran's oil infrastructure on Kharg Island.
"You saw we hit Kharg Island, everything but the pipes, yesterday. We can hit that in five minutes. And there's not a thing they can do about it," he said.
On Russia's possible role in providing satellite data to help Iran target U.S. and Israeli anti-missile shields, Trump stated: "I don't know one way or the other. But you could also make the case that we helped Ukraine to an extent. It's hard to say, "You're targeting us, but we've been helping Ukraine."
Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel launched their war more than two weeks ago. International oil prices hit $106 a barrel on Sunday evening, up about 45% since the start of the war.
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