U.S. President Donald Trump has slammed Britain’s reaction to the Iran war, saying it left him “not happy” and “very surprised,” as he fired fresh criticism at Keir Starmer.
In his latest attack, Trump said the UK ‘should be involved enthusiastically’ with helping American forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
This comes as Tehran is blockading the vital sea passage out of the Persian Gulf, stopping the flow of oil and gas from the Middle East and pushing up energy prices across the globe.
Mr. Trump suggested countries that became involved in protecting shipping in the Strait would face ‘very few shots’ from Iran.
He spoke hours after the former head of the UK’s armed forces warned Royal Navy vessels could be sunk.
The US President also said that when he spoke to Sir Keir yesterday, he admonished the Prime Minister for speaking to aides before making a decision on whether to send warships to the region.
Mr Trump’s outburst came after Sir Keir insisted the UK will not be drawn into a ‘wider war’ in the Middle East and knocked back the US President’s plea for other countries to send warships to the region.
Giving a press conference in Downing Street, the PM insisted he wanted to see ‘an end to this war as quickly as possible’.
But facing the media this afternoon, Mr Trump said: ‘I was very surprised with the UK, because UK two weeks ago, I said, why don’t you send some ships over?
‘And he [Starmer] really didn’t want to do it. I said, “you don’t want to do it?”
‘We’ve been with you. You’re our oldest ally, and we spend a lot of money on, you know, NATO and all of these things to protect you.
‘We’re protecting them. We’re working with them on Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away, separated by a vast ocean…
‘We don’t need to work with them in Ukraine, and then they tell us that we have a mine ship around, and they don’t want to do it.’
He added: ‘I think it’s terrible. I was very surprised.’
Mr Trump also said he had asked Sir Keir why the PM had to talk to his advisers about sending a warship to the Gulf.
Saying he did not ‘need advisers’ to know what would happen to oil prices, Mr Trump said: ‘The Prime Minister of UK, United Kingdom, yesterday told me, “I’m meeting with my team to make a determination”.]
‘I said “you don’t need to meet with your team, you’re the Prime Minister, you can make your own, why do you have to meet with your team to find out whether or not you’re going to send some minesweepers to help us or to send some boats”.]
‘I said “you don’t have to meet with your team”, it’s the same thing here.’
Mr Trump added that oil prices would fall ‘very, very rapidly’.