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Britain has authorised the United States to use its bases to strike Iranian sites threatening the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, the government said Friday.
A spokesperson said ministers met and “confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Read Also: Trump Threatens To Destroy South Pars If Iran Hits Qatar Again
Since the war began on February 28, Britain has allowed the US to use two bases for defensive operations and has deployed air assets to support allies targeted by Tehran’s regional retaliatory campaign.
US President Donald Trump branded NATO allies “cowards” for not heeding his demand for help in securing the Strait of Hormuz, saying “We will remember”
Meanwhile, Trump on Friday ruled out reaching a ceasefire agreement with Iran, as more Marines headed to the Middle East in a possible sign of a coming ground operation.
Trump insisted Washington had the upper hand in the three-week-old war, despite Iran effectively blockading the Strait of Hormuz in a move that has sent global oil prices skyrocketing.
“I think we have won,” Trump told journalists at the White House alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”
Trump would not confirm a report by the Axios news outlet that he was considering an occupation or blockade of Iran’s Kharg Island to pressure Tehran to reopen the strait.
“I may have a plan or I may not,” Trump said when asked by an AFP reporter. “It’s certainly a place that people are talking about but I can’t tell you.”
The White House told AFP earlier that the United States could “take out” the vital oil hub “at any time” if Trump chose.
US forces hit Kharg on Friday in strikes that Trump said had “totally obliterated” all military targets on the island, but Washington has so far avoided hitting its oil infrastructure.
Surging oil prices have put pressure on Trump to bring the war to an end, amid Republican fears the economic shock could hurt the party in November’s midterm elections.
Trump has previously said he does not plan to put boots on the ground in Iran.
But The Wall Street Journal said Washington is deploying between 2,200 and 2,500 US Marines from the California-based USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
Asked about the reports, the Marine Corps said the two groups are “deployed at sea,” while the US 3rd Fleet said they are “conducting routine operations.”
A week ago, US media reported a separate deployment to the Middle East of some 2,500 Marines aboard as many as three ships.
Trump meanwhile branded NATO allies “cowards” for not heeding his demand for help in securing the Strait of Hormuz.
“So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network.
“Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!” Trump posted.
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He has blamed Iran’s stranglehold on the narrow waterway, through which around one fifth of global crude supplies pass in peacetime, for the current oil price spike.
Six key powers including Britain, France, Germany and Japan – whose premier met Trump at the White House on Thursday – say they are ready to “contribute to appropriate efforts” but have not made any commitment.
But the 79-year-old Republican – who rose to power on a promise to end America’s long Middle Eastern wars – nevertheless insisted the joint US-Israeli operation was going “extremely well.”
“It’s not even a contest,” Trump said earlier Friday as he presented naval cadets with an American football trophy at the White House.
Trump added of Iran that “we want to talk to them, and there’s nobody to talk to,” because of the killing of Iran’s former supreme leader and a host of other top officials.
President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to destroy the entirety of Iran’s South Pars gas field — the world’s largest natural gas reserve — if Tehran launched further missile strikes against Qatar’s energy infrastructure, a sweeping ultimatum delivered on social media that simultaneously contradicted his own administration’s account of how the previous day’s strikes on the same field had been authorized, while global energy markets recorded their sharpest single-day surge since the war began on February 28.
“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Thursday. “Unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar — in which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.” He added that he did not want to authorize “this level of violence and destruction because of the long term implications that it will have on the future of Iran,” but stated he would not hesitate to act if Qatar’s LNG facilities were struck again.
