NATO making ‘mistake’ on Hormuz, Trump says

Trump, in a White House meeting with Irish Taoiseach Michael Martin on St. Patrick’s Day, said NATO is making a “very foolish mistake” by not helping out with escorting tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. 

“We don’t need them but they should’ve been there,” Trump said, reiterating what he said in his earlier Truth Social post.

Trump in particular criticized UK PM Keir Starmer, saying Starmer doesn’t measure up to Prime Minister Winston Churchill.   

“He hasn’t been supportive, and I think’s a big mistake,” Trump said. “I’m disappointed with Keir. I like him, I think he’s a nice man, but I’m disappointed.”   

The president said that the US was not ready to end the military operation in Iran but added that “we’ll be leaving in pretty much the very near future.”

Trump also called the resignation of National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent a “good thing.” He criticized Kent’s belief that Iran is not an imminent threat to US security. 

“I always though he was weak on security, very weak on security,” Trump said regarding Kent. 

US President Donald Trump, in his latest post on his Truth Social platform, said he has been informed by most NATO members that they don’t want to get involved in the US-Israeli military operation against Iran.

He said he is “not surprised by their action” and added he has always considered NATO to be a “one way street.”

Trump claimed the US has “decimated” Iran’s military — “their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft Radar is gone, and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone.”

“Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer ‘need,’ or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID! Likewise, Japan, Australia, or South Korea,” Trump said. “In fact as President of the United States of America, by far the Most Powerful Country Anywhere in the World, WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!”        

French President Emmanuel Macron, during a cabinet meeting, said Francewill only get involved with escorting ships in the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict ends. 

“We are not party to the conflict and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context,” Macron said. 

Iran has attacked ships in the vital waterway in response to the ongoing US and Israeli military operation, sparking a global energy crisis. Trump has called for other countries to help oil and gas tankers through the Strait of Hormuz but this could mean those countries are putting their naval forces in harm’s way. 

“However, we are convinced that once the situation becomes calmer… we are ready, alongside other nations, to take responsibility for an escort system,” Macron said.  

Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the US, said he has decided to resign from his position.

“I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,” Kent said in a post on X. 

Kent said it has been “an honor” serving under US President Donald Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.  

“I pray that you will reflect upon what we are doing in Iran, and who we are doing it for,” Kent said in his resignation letter addressed to Trump. “You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further towards decline and chaos. You hold the cards.”

Kent is a close ally to Tulsi Gabbard, and previously served as her acting chief of staff. Gabbard has previously expressed opposition to “regime change” wars and had made that topic a central plank of her platform during her failed run for president in 2020.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the killing of top Iranian security official Ali Larijani could be another step in allowing Iranians to rise up against their government.

“This morning we eliminated Ali Larijani, the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran,” Netanyahu said. 

Netanyahu said an uprising against the government “will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this — we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.”

Iran has not yet confirmed the death of Larijani.  

Israeli claims of having killed Ali Larijani are yet to be confirmed by outside sources or acknowledged by the regime in Tehran, but who is the 67-year-old scretary of the Supreme National Security Council? 

Larijani is part of a family of senior clerics that “Time” magazine once referred to as the “Kennedys of Iran.”

However, unlike many of his close relatives, he did not seek a route to power via the religious ranks as an ayatollah. 

Instead, Larijani went first into the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp, before going on to study philosophy and move into politics, starting off as culture minister before rising through various roles.

As such, he was never eligible to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, given his lack of religious qualifications, but he was seen as the de facto top dog in the aftermath of the US and Israeli strikes at the end of Feburary that killed much of Iran’s senior leadership. 

For more information, read this deep dive by DW’s Darko Janjevic, written earlier this month. 

Over 800,000 people have reportedly been displaced in Lebanon as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies. Some fear this is only the start. DW met families living on the streets and in makeshift shelters.

The Qatari Ministry of Defense said has “successfully intercepted” a missile attack, the second time so far today. 

Qatar has been frequently targeted by Iranian attacks since the start of the US-Israeli operation against Iran on February 28. 

Qatar is home to the Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US base in the Middle East region.  

The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that an additional 45 million people might be facing hunger if the conflict in the Middle East continues.

“If the Middle East conflict continues through June, an additional 45 million people could be pushed into acute hunger by price rises,” Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the UN’s World Food Programme, told a press conference in Geneva.

“This would take global hunger levels to an all-time record, and it’s a terrible, terrible prospect,” he said, with 319 million people around the world currently acutely food insecure.

Skau said its shipping costs have spiked by 18% ​since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28.

The extra costs were coupled with heavy spending cuts as donors spend more on defense, Skau said.

Germany backs its allies — yet questions are growing. As strikes escalate and prices rise, Friedrich Merz faces a legal, political, and economic tightrope. What’s at stake for Germany?

The Lebanese army said one of its soldiers were killed and four others injured in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon. The soldier who died succumbed to his injuries. 

The attack occurred near the city of Nabatieh when they were struck, the army said. The soldiers were in a car and on a motorcycle when the strike occurred, and were wearing military uniforms. 

Israel said it is looking into the incident. 

Israel is currently launching airstrikes and a “limited” ground operation in Lebanon against Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah. 

Hezbollah is a political party and paramilitary organization, which is deemed a terror organization by Israel and several other countries. Hezbollah emerged in 1982 during the Lebanese civil war and has been equipped and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

The Lebanese army is not an active party to the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.    

Loading of oil at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah was disrupted on Tuesday following an attack and subsequent fire at the export terminal, as Iran pressed on with missile and drone strikes on Gulf countries.

Local authorities said that no injuries had been reported in the attack, which was the third in four days.

News agencies reported that loading of crude oil was suspended at the facility, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Operations at the Shah gas field — located 180 km (111.85 miles) southwest of Abu ⁠Dhabi — remained suspended following an earlier drone strike.

The UAE’s other export hubs lie within the Gulf, which has been effectively cut off from ​global markets by Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, ​through which a fifth of the world’s oil supply normally flowed.

The Gulf has borne the brunt of Iran’s response to the joint US-Israeli strikes that sparked the current war, with Tehran targeting US assets in the region, including civilian infrastructure.

Ali Larijani’s X and Telegram accounts posted a handwritten note regarding Iranian sailors who were killed in a US torpedo attack at sea. 

The note says the memory of the sailors “shall forever remain in the heart of the Iranian nation.”  

The post, however, does not confirm Larijani’s death, as has been claimed by Israel. It’s unclear when the note, in what is assumed to be Larijani’s writing, was produced.  

Iraq‘s Oil Minister, Hayyan Abdul-Ghani, has said the Iraqi government is in contact with Iran about allowing some of its oil tankers to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, 

according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA) public broadcaster.

Global shipping traffic has come to a near-standstill in the vital channel due to the war and the threat of Iranian attacks.

Around a fifth of the world’s oil shipments pass through the Strait off the coast of Iran.

Meanwhile, the price of oil jumped more than 5% amid concerns over the safe passage of cargo ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

At around 06:15 GMT, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was up 5.16% at $98.32 a barrel while Brent Crude also rose above 5% before easing back.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that top Iranian security official Ali Larijani has been killed in a strike overnight.

Iran has not confirmed Larijani’s death. 

Who is Ali Larijani?

Larijani is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in Iran, which oversees coordination on defense and foreign policy. 

Larijani is believed to be the main figure behind the Iranian government’s violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year.