The Strait of Hormuz is now front and center as global oil prices spike amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran.
President Donald Trump now issues a stern warning to NATO allies, making it clear there will be consequences if they don’t step up to keep the vital waterway open.
Oil prices soaring
More than 1,000 cargo ships, mostly oil and gas tankers, have been blocked from passing through the strait of Hormuz after Iran partially shut the route.
While the war has tightened Iran’s grip on the strait — including the deployment of naval mines that have made the waterway extremely dangerous to cross — Tehran has also warned that it may target any vessels linked to the U.S. or its allies trying to pass through.
The bottleneck has sent oil prices soaring, crude jumped to around $106 a barrel, a 45% surge since fighting escalated. Oil and gas prices stayed high Monday in U.S. Gas prices rose 2 cents to $3.72 a gallon on average, the highest since October 2023.
Since the war began, prices have jumped 74 cents per gallon, marking the biggest monthly increase since Hurricane Katrina, according to CNN.
On Sunday, Trump told the Financial Times that European nations and other oil-dependent countries must join a U.S.-led effort to secure the strait.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” he said.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Trump added.
Called on China
The president also called on China to pitch in, noting that the country imports roughly 90% of its oil through the waterway.
“We’d like to know before that. It’s [two weeks is] a long time … We may delay,” he said, without specifying how long.
Trump also criticized NATO members for offering minimal assistance.
“We have a thing called NATO. 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,” he said.
“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.”
He singled out the UK for not fully committing, recalling a conversation with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
“The UK might be considered the number one ally… and when I asked for them to come, they didn’t want to come. 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.’”
Trump also hinted that the U.S. could strike Iran’s oil infrastructure again.
“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, referring to the key oil-loading hub off the Iranian coast.
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