The United States is close to announcing a coalition to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the Wall Street Journal reported, while Iran warned that it is not close to giving up and neighboring Iraq continued to feel the spillover effects of the war.
“The Trump administration as soon as this week plans to announce that multiple countries have agreed to form a coalition that will escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz,” the WSJ reported on March 15, citing unnamed US officials.
The report said the matter is still being discussed and that the mission could shift depending on battlefield conditions. It also said potential participants were debating when such a mission would begin – during hostilities or only after a cease-fire.
In a social media post earlier, US President Donald Trump had said: “The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!”
In an interview published on March 16 by The Financial Times, Trump said that NATO faces a “very bad future” if member nations do not help the United States in Iran.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” the FT quoted Trump as saying.
On March 15, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with Trump about the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz in order to stop disruptions to global shipping, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Starmer also held a conversation with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, during which they discussed how the ongoing closure of the strait is affecting international shipping. The leaders agreed to continue their discussions on the Middle East conflict during a meeting scheduled for March 16, Downing Street said.
Energy Crisis Fears
The WSJ also reported that US oil executives had warned administration officials that the energy crisis caused by the Iran war is likely to get worse.
It said that in a series of White House meetings and recent talks with Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips said disruptions to shipping in the strait “would continue to create volatility in global energy markets,” WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Should military forces begin escorting ships through the strait while hostilities were still under way, it would mark a dangerous new phase in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Tehran has fired back at US Arab allies in the region and could target foreign navies in the strait, even though Trump and other US officials have said Iran’s Navy has been destroyed during the US-Israeli air strikes.
Despite being pounded by US and Israeli air power, Iran has remained defiant, launching missiles and drones against Israel and US Arab allies in the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on March 15 disputed a claim by Trump that Tehran was seeking to negotiate with Washington. Trump said he was not ready for talks because Tehran’s “terms were not good enough.”
“We have never asked for a cease-fire, and we have never asked even for negotiations,” Araqchi told CBS TV. “We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes.”
Iraq Feels The War
Meanwhile, Iraq continued to feel the effects of the war in the neighboring country, with officials there reporting multiple attacks, either against Iran-allied groups or on US-linked sites.
Iraqi authorities said five people were wounded on March 15 in a rocket attack on the Baghdad airport complex, which houses a US diplomatic facility.
The Iraqi government said that “five rockets targeted Baghdad International Airport and its surrounding area, injuring four airport employees and security personnel, and an engineer.”
Security forces said they seized the launchpad used for the attack in the al-Radwaniya area southwest of Baghdad.
Baghdad’s heavily fortified airport includes a massive military complex with Iranian military and security bases, a central prison holding many terrorist suspects, and a US diplomatic and logistics site.
Since the beginning of the war, Iraq has closed its airspace across the country. Mainly Sunni Arab Iraq — nominally a US ally — also has a large Shi’ite population with militias and political forces linked to Iran.
Iran-allied militias have claimed daily drone and missile attacks against US bases.
The US Embassy in Baghdad has also been targeted, with a drone striking the complex on March 14 — the same day three Iran-allied fighters were killed in strikes, blamed by many on the United States, in the capital.
Reuters quoted security sources as saying three explosive drones hit an Iranian opposition camp east of Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan on March 15, killing one fighter.
Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said that Israel still has thousands of targets to strike inside Iran.
“We still have thousands of targets in Iran, and we are identifying new targets every day,” he said.
Meanwhile, Israel continued to batter sites believed to be housing Hezbollah members in Lebanon. Israel’s military late on March 15 said it was striking Hezbollah infrastructure in the southern suburbs of Beirut following earlier raids focused closer to the border.
