Trump says ‘nobody expected’ Iran aggression on Gulf countries

US President Donald Trump said that Iran’s strikes against its neighbors were a surprise amid the ongoing regional tension.

“They (Iran) weren’t supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East,” he said on Monday, commenting on Iran’s aggression attack its neighboring countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

“Nobody expected that. We were shocked.”

However, Trump was warned that attacking Iran could trigger strikes against US Gulf allies, according to an American official and two sources familiar with US intelligence reports.

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The US official, who like the other two requested anonymity to discuss the issue, said Trump was briefed before the war that striking Iran could trigger a broader regional conflict that would include Iranian attacks against Gulf capitals.

Trump was also briefed ahead of the operation that Tehran would likely seek to close the economically vital Strait of Hormuz, according to two other sources familiar with the matter.

No coalition to help open Hormuz yet

Trump earlier accused some Western allies of ingratitude after several countries rebuffed his demand to send warships to escort oil tankers in the strait, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flow.

Speaking at a White House event in Washington, Trump said many countries had told him they were prepared to help, but voiced frustration with some long-standing allies.

“Some are very enthusiastic about it, and some aren’t,” he said, without offering specifics. “Some are countries that we’ve helped for many, many years. We’ve protected them from horrible outside sources, and they weren’t that enthusiastic. And the level of enthusiasm matters to me.”

A number of US partners, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan and Australia said they had no immediate plans to send ships to help reopen the strategic waterway, which Iran has effectively shut with drones and naval mines.

“We lack the mandate from the United Nations, the European Union or NATO required under the Basic Law,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin, adding that Washington and Israel had not consulted Germany before launching the war.

Naval escorts will not “100 percent guarantee” the safety of ships attempting to transit the waterway, the Financial Times quoted the head of the International Maritime Organization as saying on Tuesday.

Trump had earlier suggested China, which relies on Iranian crude, should help open the strait and that he might delay a much anticipated trip to Beijing at the end of the month if he did not get support. On Monday, Trump said he was seeking to delay the visit by “a month or so.”

While the US and Israel say they have decimated Iran’s military, Tehran’s fleet of cheap drones is continuing to cause havoc in the region.

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf dismissed foreign reports Iran is running low on missile launchers.

“They say that our firepower has decreased, but our offensive power, experience, and accuracy have increased,” he said on state TV on Tuesday, adding that regional security needed to be established by regional countries.

Oil prices rose more than 5 percent on Tuesday, reversing some of the previous session’s losses, on worries about supplies, while Asian shares also rallied after Monday’s sell-off.

With Reuters

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