Trump urges other nations’ warships to protect Gulf oil route

US President Donald Trump has called for other nations’ warships to help protect global oil supplies passing through the Strait of Hormuz, still virtually blocked Sunday by the threat of Iranian attacks.

Despite sustaining heavy bombing since Israeli-American forces launched a war against Iran on February 28, Tehran has defied Trump’s claim that its military capability has been “100%” destroyed.

Iran’s attacks and threats have nearly halted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route normally used for a fifth of the world’s oil supplies, sending oil prices up 40% and upending the global economy.

Its military has deployed drones and missiles against Israel, Gulf energy facilities and other targets in the Middle East region.

AFP journalists heard explosions in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, and saw black smoke billowing from a major oil terminal in the port city of Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. Security sources said the US embassy in Iraq was hit by a drone.

“Many countries, particularly those affected by Iran’s attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, will send warships, in cooperation with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and secure,” Trump wrote on social media on Saturday.

“We hope that China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and others, who are affected by this artificial constraint, will send ships to the area,” he added.

“Meanwhile, the United States will bombard the coastline and continue to fire on Iranian boats and ships out of the water.”

US forces struck Iran’s Kharg island on Friday – where almost all of the country’s oil exports come from – with Trump claiming they had “obliterated every MILITARY target” while sparing energy facilities.

Iran has threatened that US-linked oil and energy companies would be “turned into a pile of ash” if its oil facilities were hit.

According to Iranian Health Ministry data, which could not be independently verified, more than 1,200 people have been killed by US and Israeli strikes.

The United Nations refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran, most of them fleeing the capital and other cities for safety.

The Pentagon says more than 15,000 targets in Iran have been hit by US and Israeli forces.

US media reported that the Pentagon sent the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and about 2,500 Marines to the region.

– ‘Go away now’

Military attacks were reported by local media in several Iranian provinces, including one on an industrial site in Isfahan that killed 15 people, according to the Fars news agency. AFP could not verify the toll.

The US Army lost 13 personnel. Among them are six people aboard a refueling plane that crashed in Iraq, an accident that American officials say was not the result of hostile or friendly fire.

In Iran, leaders appeared intent on ensuring stability despite the killing of supreme leader Ali Khamenei the day the war began.

His son Mojtaba Khamenei was named the new supreme leader but has not appeared in public and is reportedly injured. Iran said Saturday that “there are no problems with the new supreme leader.”

Tehran also showed the ability to strike Israel and the wider region, firing missiles and sending drones in a series of attacks over the weekend.

AFP journalists heard explosions over Jerusalem after the military detected missiles fired from Iran, while the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reported new interceptions of missiles or drones.

Clouds of black smoke rose over the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, home to a major UAE oil storage and export terminal, shortly after the Iranian military warned UAE civilians to avoid port areas.

Washington’s embassy in Iraq was hit by a drone, security sources told AFP – the second such attack in the war – while the Emirati consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan was targeted for the second time in a week.

US officials in Baghdad urged citizens to “leave now.”

In Kuwait, a drone strike damaged the international airport’s radar system but caused no injuries, the civil aviation authority said.

Qatar evacuated parts of central Doha and intercepted two missiles. The explosions were heard by AFP journalists.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they fired missiles at U.S. forces stationed at the Al-Kharj base in Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally that hosts large numbers of American troops.

The kingdom did not confirm the attack but said earlier it had intercepted six ballistic missiles headed towards Al-Kharj.

Formula One races cancelled
The war has rocked global sport, with motorsport’s governing body canceling April’s Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Formula One races.

In Australia, the government said three members of the visiting Iranian women’s soccer team – two players and a coaching staff – had abandoned asylum protection in the country and decided to return home.

Seven members of the team competing in the Women’s Asia Cup had sought refuge in Australia after being branded “traitors” in their homeland for refusing to sing the national anthem.

Only three of them will now remain in Australia, after another member of the group changed his mind earlier in the week.

Lebanon was also drawn into the war after the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel following Khamenei’s death.

Israel responded with air and ground strikes, killing at least 826 people, according to Lebanese authorities.

He also issued evacuation orders covering hundreds of square kilometers of Lebanon, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and raising warnings of a humanitarian disaster.

Hezbollah said it was engaged in “direct clashes” with Israeli forces in the southern Lebanese city of Khiam on Saturday evening.

AFP

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