Now Trump tells PM: Do send ships to Gulf as US President calls for armada to keep vital Strait of Hormuz open

Donald Trump has demanded that Britain send warships to help defend the Strait of Hormuz and prevent a global recession.

The US President previously took a swipe at Sir Keir Starmer earlier this month, saying the offer of aid was no longer needed because the war had already been won.

But on a day of escalating tensions with Tehran threatening to use helicopters to kidnap US troops, Mr Trump called on Britain to join an international armada to force the opening of the blockaded Strait, where Iran has begun laying mines.

This came as Iran’s foreign minister confirmed in an interview that his country was receiving military aid from Russia and China.

[They] “They are our strategic partners and we have had close cooperation in the past, which still continues and includes military cooperation,” Abbas Araghchi said.

In recent days, at least six ships have been hit by shells or explosives-laden boats in Hormuz and the wider Persian Gulf, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes. Trump said: ‘We have already destroyed 100 percent of Iran’s military capacity.

‘But no matter how badly they are defeated, it is easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or send a close-range missile across or into this waterway.’

He hopes that Britain, China and France, among others, will ‘send ships to the Strait of Hormuz so that it is no longer threatened by a completely decapitated nation’.

A fireball and thick smoke rise into the sky at an oil facility in Fujairah, UAE, which authorities say was caused by the wreckage of a stopped drone on March 14, 2026

Donald Trump shared the visual of the attack on Kharg Island, which carries 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports

In response, the Ministry of Defense said only that it was ‘discussing a range of options with our allies and partners to ensure the security of shipping in the region’. Last week, Britain deployed the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon to protect the British military base in Cyprus.

Of the other potentially available assets, two destroyers are considered ‘operational’, but the remaining three have extensive maintenance.

It has been suggested that HMS Prince of Wales, the only aircraft carrier currently deployable in the British fleet, could be dispatched after being ordered to be ready to sail within five days. Instead, the ship is considered to be sent to the North Pole in a joint NATO operation.

Mr. Trump’s plea for help followed the most devastating bombing raid of the war so far.

He boasted of ‘destroying’ military facilities on Kharg Island, off the coast of Iran, home to a major oil terminal considered the economic lifeblood of the country.

US defense chiefs said the attack on the island completely destroyed naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and many other sites.

The president said the precision strikes had left the island’s oil infrastructure intact, but warned that could change if Iran or others ‘do anything to interfere’ with the safe passage of ships through the Bosphorus. And he warned that the US would continue to ‘bomb the coastline’ of Iran in a bid to break the blockade.

Other developments in the Middle East yesterday:

• The US says it will send 5,000 more Marines and sailors to the region along with more warships
• A former Iranian minister has warned that if Trump orders a ground attack on Kharg Island, the regime will use helicopters to evade US forces from Gulf military bases. Former foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki said: ‘Why shouldn’t we go to some of their territory, land a helicopter there and seize their forces?
• Iran claimed that oil exports from the island continued normally but vowed to destroy oil and energy infrastructure belonging to companies working with the United States;
• After the Israeli army announced that it had detected new attacks from Iran, air strikes continued in the Middle East with sirens blaring in Jerusalem.
• An Iranian official has warned UAE residents to stay away from ports, docks and US military sites “to avoid any harm”
• There was a missile attack on the US embassy in Baghdad and all US citizens were called to leave Iraq.

Approximately 2,200 US Marines aboard USS Tripoli are expected to arrive ‘within ten to 14 days’.

Speaking on Air Force One last night, Mr Trump said US warships would begin escorting oil tankers across the Bosphorus ‘very, very soon’.

The Marines are trained to remove obstacles to shipping routes and will likely try to seize Kharg Island to protect ships from attack, as Iran fears.

USS Tripoli is an amphibious assault ship with an extended landing deck equipped with F-35 supersonic stealth fighters, Osprey and Seahawk helicopters, and door-mounted machine guns. It also has the heavy carrier King Stallion and Viper attack helicopters.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin reportedly suggested moving Iran’s enriched uranium to Russia in his phone call with Trump last week.

The Russian President is said to have proposed the idea, among many other ideas, as part of a deal to end the war between the United States and Iran. Mr. Trump reportedly rejected the proposal, which Moscow had made several times before the current war began.

Did someone tell President Trump that some of our fleet doesn’t operate in warm water?

By Glen Owen and Brendan Carlin

The Royal Navy has been slow to send a destroyer to the war zone due to fears some of its ships might not be able to operate in warm water, The Mail on Sunday understands.

Britain’s response to the crisis has been criticized a week after HMS Dragon, sent to help defend the UK military base in Cyprus against Iranian drones, left the UK.

It departed Portsmouth on Tuesday but only left UK waters yesterday after ‘cruising’ for three days while crew arrangements were finalised. Previously, making the ship seaworthy was postponed.

Now this newspaper has been told that the main reason for Dragon’s foray into the region is that its sister ship, which is on standby, cannot operate in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.

HMS Dragon has already been deployed to defend a British military base in Cyprus

HMS Dragon’s sister ship, HMS Duncan, was ready for deployment but had not yet undergone a Power Improvement Program (PIP) to stop the ship’s turbines cutting out in warm waters.

In 2016, six Type 45 destroyers ordered for £630 million each during the last Labor government were revealed to have engine problems.

Their advanced design, which uses two Rolls-Royce jet engines and two diesel generators, has difficulty coping with waters such as the Mediterranean and the Gulf.

The Ministry of Defense has begun upgrading engine systems under the PIP programme, but HMS Duncan has still not been upgraded. It was replaced by HMS Dragon, which was upgraded but not ready for sea.

Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West said: ‘There is not a single warship between Singapore and Gibraltar. ‘It’s surprising that no one had the geopolitical understanding to make these decisions sooner.’

Yesterday the Ministry of Defense said the engine problem was not the reason the Duncan did not go to sea, but refused to say what it was.