Looks like someone really wants a bailout:
Donald Trump has warned that Nato faces a “very bad” future if US allies fail to assist in opening up the Strait of Hormuz, sending a blunt message to European nations to join his war effort in Iran.
The US president told the FT in an interview on Sunday that he could also delay his summit with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month as he presses Beijing to help unblock the crucial waterway.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump said, arguing that Europe and China are heavily dependent on oil from the Gulf, unlike the US. “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 added.
Trump’s comments, made in an eight-minute phone call with the FT, came a day after he appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to join a “team effort” to open up the chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Iran in effect shut the strait after the US and Israel launched their war more than two weeks ago, sparking fears of a new oil price shock for the global economy. US efforts to open the waterway have largely failed. International oil prices hit $106 a barrel on Sunday evening, up about 45 per cent since the start of the war.
The whole world has seen how Trump is treating our NATO allies who have stood by us for over 80 years. The whole world sees how Trump is treating South American nations who have done nothing to the US. It’s no wonder everyone is turning down his demands that they dispatch their navies to bail him out.
Trump has cultivated allies almost as carefully as he planned this military campaign. It’s the art of . . . the art of . . . well, the art of something or other.