Trump appeals for UK to send ships to Strait of Hormuz to help unlock it… after Britain finally managed to deploy HMS Dragon on Tuesday

While Donald Trump asked for help from the UK to prevent the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, he also called on other foreign leaders to send ships to the strategic passage.

The US President also asked for help from France, Japan, South Korea and China, which have long been considered his country’s geopolitical rivals.

Trump’s new post on Truth Social suggests Iran has been successful in ending the strategic water crossing.

In recent days, Tehran has launched multiple missile attacks on ships passing through the Bosphorus and sent its own explosives-laden ships after threatening to raise the price of oil to $200 per barrel.

Trump said, “Many countries, especially those affected by Iran’s attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz, will send warships with the United States to keep the Strait open and safe.”

‘We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability, but no matter how badly they are defeated, it is easy for them to send in a drone or two, drop a mine, or launch a close-range missile somewhere along or within this Waterway.’

Trump called on many states “affected by this artificial restriction,” including the United Kingdom, to send ships to the Bosphorus to help unblock one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

‘Meanwhile, the US will turn the coastline into hell and constantly blow Iranian boats and ships out of the water,’ he said, later promising that ‘one way or another’ he would make the passage ‘open, safe and free’.

Meanwhile, Britain’s HMS Dragon was only deployed on Tuesday and has spent the last three days ‘cruising the Channel’ after being sent to defend the country’s forces against Iranian drone attacks in Cyprus.

HMS Dragon departs Portsmouth Harbor on 10 March 2026

The US President’s new mission asking other countries for help in opening the Strait of Hormuz shows that Iran has been successful in closing the passage

And the £1bn Type-45 destroyer only left UK territorial waters yesterday, despite having been deployed just days earlier amid growing criticism of the UK’s slow response to the conflict.

After leaving port, the warship shut down its carrier, a system that broadcasts the ship’s location, meaning the ship’s movements can no longer be publicly monitored.

HMS Dragon was also planned to stop in Plymouth for a crew change, but these plans were reportedly canceled due to mounting pressure to take the ship to the Eastern Mediterranean.

And despite earlier rebukes of US-Israeli attacks on Iran, Sir Keir Starmer ordered HMS Dragon to leave after RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by an enemy drone on 1 March.

While the Mediterranean-bound Royal Navy ship is equipped with the country’s best air defense missiles and can launch multiple interceptor missiles simultaneously, Sir Keir continues to be criticized for its slow response.

HMS Dragon should have been ready to sail with 72 hours’ notice. It was docked and operational studies were being carried out before being put back into service by the Royal Navy.

Navy sources have since insisted they ‘did six weeks of work in six days’ to prepare her to sail to Cyprus, but the statement did little to silence critics.

In Cyprus, Britain became an object of ridicule among the local population; When asked about England’s attitude, one of them laughs and says, ‘What reaction?’ he says. ‘There was no response’.

Nicholas Andreo, 35, an engineer from Sakak, near RAF Akrotiri, added: ‘There was a response from France, from Greece, from Italy.’

Saying that HMS Dragon had only left British waters on Friday, Mr Andreo asked pointedly: ‘So the ship is still coming? Who will guard the ship, not Britain?

‘This is so frustrating. What’s happening now is happening because of your base. Cyprus is in danger because of the British base. What about the people who own the base? They’re not even here.

‘I think Britain is lost now. The whole country is in chaos. You know, I think maybe 10 years ago maybe things were different.

‘But now the government has many internal and external problems and now your filth is coming to Cyprus. Because of the British and because of Trump. “This is a shame.”

80-year-old tradesman Andreas Kyriacou said that the Cyprus government made a mistake by allowing ‘so many’ helicopters, planes and ships to come to the island.

‘We don’t have a problem here, the problems are outside Cyprus, but no one comes anymore,’ he said. ‘England has a responsibility, it is their own base that brought this on and they need to make a statement now.

‘They are sending a very big ship, we don’t want it here. It only brings trouble. Why would anyone attack us without these bases? This war is very harmful.

‘The people are afraid and do not know what will happen, because of all this, prices are increasing, tourists are not coming.’

Petros Pavlou, 87, from Asomatos, who works as an electrician near the RAF base, said: ‘We know your friendship. England has always supported us. We remember how England supported the Cypriots against Türkiye from 1955 to 1959.

‘The base has given us security and provides jobs for people. But if the base wasn’t here, we couldn’t make this attack. ‘Unfortunately, I think more people think that way after your response.’

A Cypriot living in Akrotiri, who gave his name as Andreas (33), said: ‘The people here have problems with the British.

‘The British don’t know how to behave anymore. ‘They don’t know what kind of game to play with us anymore.’

Marios, who lives near the base with his wife and two children, said: ‘This is the first time we are so afraid for those of us living on this base.

‘We are safe now because there are Greece, Spain and other countries here. England is sending a ship.

‘I think we need more security from the UK, this is their base,’ he added. ‘It’s quite late.’

Elsewhere, HMS Prince of Wales was recently upgraded to advanced readiness amid ongoing criticism of Britain’s military response to the conflict in the Middle East.

This means the crew of the £3bn ship, which is currently undergoing repairs in Portsmouth, must be ready to sail on five days’ notice.

A fire broke out in Fujairah, one of the largest oil facilities in the Middle East, as a result of the downing of an Iranian unmanned aerial vehicle.

A missile hit the US embassy in Baghdad today as clouds of smoke rose in the skies of the Iraqi city.

Donald Trump had previously boasted of ‘totally destroying’ Iraq and said the US had hit all military targets on Kharg Island.

HMS Prince of Wales may also require a French escort to the Middle East in case there are not enough British military ships to do the job.

Crew members have reportedly been warned of the possible mission, but with most of the Royal Navy’s warships unusable or out of order, allies such as France, the United States and other European countries may be called upon to replace them.

An aircraft carrier must be accompanied by two or three warships, usually destroyers or frigates, and an attack submarine; However, it appears that no decision has been made on whether the aircraft carrier will be deployed or escorted.

The Royal Navy has six destroyers in total, but only one, HMS Dragon, is thought to be ready for action but is currently en route to protect the British sovereign base in Cyprus.

Of the seven frigates in the fleet, only HMS Somerset and HMS St Albans appear to be available, the remainder needing maintenance or problems to be resolved.

Shadow defense secretary James Cartlidge told The Telegraph: ‘Labour’s talk of making an aircraft carrier more readily available distracts from the real question: why didn’t Starmer plan properly and move naval assets weeks ago, when a major US operation was clearly looming?

‘The reality is that Labor has prioritized welfare over defence, and the underfunded Ministry of Defense has been forced to cut £2.6bn this year.

‘That’s why there are no Royal Navy warships in the Middle East, and even if an aircraft carrier were deployed, serious questions would be raised about escort ships.’

It comes after Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with.’

The US President has delivered a shocking verdict on the Prime Minister, who remains furious at Sir Keir for not supporting US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

In comments that have plunged the so-called ‘special relationship’ into an unprecedented crisis, Mr Trump declared that he was ‘not happy’ with the Prime Minister and accused him of being ‘very, very uncooperative’.

Speaking at the White House, the US President again lashed out at Sir Keir’s initial decision to prevent the US from using British bases to launch an attack on Tehran.

In an apparent reference to Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, the US President said: ‘That island… It took us three, four days to figure out where we could land there.

‘It would have been much easier to land there rather than flying for extra hours, so we were very surprised.’

Referring to Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, a bust of whom is in the Oval Office, Mr Trump added: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

The US President continued to criticize Britain’s approach to the ‘stupid island’ in a fresh lashing out at Sir Keir’s proposal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

‘This is not the age of Churchill. “I will say that Britain was very, very uncooperative towards that stupid island that they had, they gave it away and they got a 100-year lease,” he told reporters while sitting next to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office.

‘Perhaps it has to do with the local people who have never seen the island before, claiming it. What’s all this about? ‘They destroy relationships, it’s a shame.’

A missile hit the helipad inside the US Embassy in Baghdad today, sending clouds of smoke into the skies of the Iraqi capital.

This comes after Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the US had ‘completely destroyed’ all military targets on ‘Iran’s crown jewel’ Kharg Island.

The US President also vowed to ‘destroy’ the oil infrastructure on the island if Iran continues its attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran retaliated by striking a major oil hub in the UAE; Clouds of black smoke were seen rising into the sky above Fujairah port following a drone strike.

Former Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki has threatened to ‘capture’ US forces if they attempt to seize oil infrastructure on Kharg Island.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also warned that US ‘hideouts’ in the UAE were ‘legitimate’ targets after Trump attacked the export terminal.