Don’t ‘blackmail’ us: Europe rejects Trump’s demand to help clean up Hormuz mess

BRUSSELS — Europe’s message to Donald Trump on Monday was clear: We’re not helping you secure the Strait of Hormuz. 

Foreign ministers from the 27 EU countries gathered in Brussels to discuss the American president’s call for European countries to help secure the narrow waterway, a vital oil shipping channel that Iran has largely blocked in retaliation for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes.

Among the ideas floated was expanding the mandate of the EU’s naval mission — Aspides — to allow European warships to be sent to patrol the strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

But after hours of closed-door talks about the war in Iran, Europe’s foreign envoys made clear they see this as America’s problem to solve.

“Europe has no interest in an open-ended war,” EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Monday evening after the meeting. “This is not Europe’s war, but Europe’s interests are directly at stake.”

Although there was a “clear wish” among ministers “to strengthen” the EU’s naval mission in the Middle East, “there was no appetite in changing the mandate,” Kallas said, referring to sending warships to the strait.

“Extending this mandate to cover the Strait of Hormuz … there was no appetite from the member states to do that,” she repeated. “Nobody wants to go actively in this war.”

Respect, please

Trump told the Financial Times at the weekend it would be “very bad for the future of NATO” if European countries failed to respond to his call for help. He wrote on social media that he was in contact with seven countries about securing the strait, without naming which countries he was referring to.

And on Monday, Trump told reporters that he was confident France would assist the U.S. “I think he’s gonna help. I mean, I’ll let you know, I spoke to him yesterday,” the American president said, referring to his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. Trump also said he was “not happy” with the response from the U.K. and “very surprised” after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would not be drawn into a “wider war” over Iran.

Trump was adamant that “we don’t need anybody” and “we’re the strongest nation in the world,” but his request for assistance was a test of solidarity, to see how European countries would react, as Iran’s closure of the strait drives up oil prices.

“I’ve been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won’t be there,” the U.S. president said.

European capitals clearly don’t want to get involved, though — and wish Trump would stop asking.

“The Americans chose this path, together with the Israelis,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. | Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images

“The Americans chose this path, together with the Israelis,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, adding that Germany’s main responsibility was to defend NATO territory.

“We did not start this war,” Pistorius stressed.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also poured scorn on the idea of committing Berlin to the conflict, triggered when the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Tehran on Feb. 28 and killed the Iranian supreme leader. “NATO is a defensive alliance, not an interventionist one. And that is precisely why NATO has no place here at all,” Merz said.

“I hope that we will treat one another with the necessary respect within the alliance,” Merz added, in an apparent rebuke to Trump’s grousing.

Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel went even further, stressing his country would not give in to “blackmail” from Washington. “Don’t ask us” to send troops, Bettel told reporters in Brussels.

Not Europe’s war

U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker on Monday reiterated Trump’s call for allies to support the war in Iran, given they import limited volumes of oil from the Gulf region.

“Ultimately that security of the Strait of Hormuz is in their interest,” he said. Trump “is absolutely right to suggest that our allies need to come, need to help us and support our efforts,” Whitaker added.

The Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil is transported, remains effectively closed due to Iran’s threats to shipping, causing the price of a barrel of oil to surge past the $100 mark last week.

Yet a full NATO mission in Iran remains improbable for now, according to four NATO diplomats who spoke to POLITICO, both because it’s unlikely to receive the necessary unanimous backing from allies and since it would add little compared to more rapid bilateral support allies could muster for the U.S. The diplomats were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive security matter.

So far, the U.S. hasn’t formally asked NATO countries for support as part of the alliance’s framework, two of the diplomats said.

But “some allies won’t be steered into involvement there,” one of the diplomats said. “Plus, it’s not directly NATO’s area of responsibility.”

That point was repeatedly underscored by Kallas and other top officials on Monday. “Europe is not part of this war. We have not started this war,” she said. “And the political objectives are unclear.”

The EU’s leaders are holding a summit Thursday, and an early draft of the conclusions obtained by POLITICO, dated March 13, which has been worked on by national diplomats and will go through several revisions, says leaders will call for “deescalation and maximum restraint” in Iran and the wider region.

Nicholas Vinocur and Rixa Fürsen contributed to this report.