Biggest Nato allies reject Donald Trump’s Hormuz armada demand

The UK, France and Germany have rejected Donald Trump’s demand for them to participate in a naval mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, despite his threat that doing so would mean “a very bad future” for Nato.

Europe’s three biggest military powers all said on Monday that they did not want to be drawn into direct conflict with Iran, even as they expressed concerns over the closure of the waterway critical to a fifth of global oil and gas supplies.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK would “not be drawn into the wider war”, indicating that sending Royal Navy warships to the Gulf was not under consideration while the war was ongoing.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who initially expressed support for the US-Israel strikes on Iran, said on Monday that “Nato is a defence alliance and not an intervention alliance”. His defence minister Boris Pistorius added: “It is not our war; we did not start it.”

The European response risks a showdown with Trump whose war against Iran has led to missile and drone attacks across the Gulf and upended global energy markets, with oil and European natural gas prices up about 70 per cent since the start of the year.

Trump on Sunday demanded Nato allies assist in reopening the strait, which has been blocked to almost all vessels since the war began in late February.

“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 interview. “If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato.”

The UK, France and Greece, three of Nato’s biggest naval powers, all declined on Monday to commit to a naval mission in the strait while the conflict was ongoing, a position echoed by Japan and Australia.

Trump claimed on Monday that “numerous countries” have “told me they are on the way” and suggested countries the US had provided protection to would be viewed as ungrateful if they did not contribute.

“Some are very enthusiastic about it and some aren’t,” Trump said.

“Some are countries that we’ve helped for many many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. The level of enthusiasm matters to me.”

European officials have highlighted that Nato is a defensive alliance and that targeting Iran and its nuclear programme was a “war of choice” by the US and Israel. But they remain keen to maintain the Trump administration’s backing for Ukraine against Russia and are reliant on US support for the Nato alliance.

Europe’s energy system is still recovering from the loss of Russian supplies following Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Oil prices rose in early trading on Monday to reach $106.50 a barrel, before slipping slightly to $102.35. Oil had traded close to $60 a barrel in January.

Iran has struck at least 19 vessels in the Gulf in the past two weeks, killing 13 seafarers, as well as attacking storage tanks and other energy infrastructure.

The total number of strikes recorded on Gulf countries has surpassed 3,400 since the conflict began, according to figures compiled by the FT.

More than half of all attacks have targeted the UAE, and on Monday Dubai International airport was briefly forced to suspend operations after a drone strike.

Starmer said European allies wanted to find a “credible, viable plan” to protect the Strait of Hormuz, with assistance from Gulf states as well as the US.

At a meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers discussed how members could assist in reopening the strait, though all have indicated there is little interest in action that could result in engaging Iranian forces.

EU ministers were fiercely critical of Trump’s demand, with Luxembourg’s foreign minister Xavier Bettel describing Trump’s approach as “blackmail”.

Additional reporting by Eleni Varvitsioti in Athens, Leo Lewis in Tokyo, Nic Fildes in Sydney and Jamie John in London