MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump brands NATO allies “cowards” for refusing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz

US military officials confirmed to international media that thousands of additional marines and three warships were heading toward the Middle East

US President Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against NATO allies on Friday, lambasting them as “cowards” for refusing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that has remained effectively closed since the start of the war with Iran. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump declared that without the US military, NATO amounts to nothing more than “a paper tiger,” and warned that Washington would not forget the alliance's stance.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical chokepoint for roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply, and its closure has driven sharp volatility across energy markets. Brent crude was trading around $107 a barrel on Friday, up more than 47% since hostilities began on February 28.

US military officials confirmed to international media that thousands of additional marines and three warships were heading toward the Middle East — the second marine expeditionary unit the Pentagon has dispatched to the region since the conflict began.

On the Israeli front, the military launched a fresh wave of strikes on central Tehran overnight, hours after Iran fired at least four salvoes of missiles toward Jerusalem. Israel confirmed the deaths of Revolutionary Guard spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini, Basij intelligence chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, and IRGC Aerospace Force commander Mehdi Ghorishi.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled the possibility of a ground phase in the conflict. “You can't do revolutions from the air alone. You can do a lot of things from the air, and we're doing that, but there has to be a ground component as well,” he said in remarks carried by international outlets, without providing operational details. Netanyahu reiterated that Israeli forces would press on until Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities were eliminated.

On the northern front, Israel continued military operations in Beirut and southern Lebanon, where the death toll has surpassed 1,000 and the number of displaced people has neared one million since operations intensified in early March.

Iran, meanwhile, maintained its attacks across the Gulf. Kuwait reported another drone strike on its Mina Al-Ahmadi oil refinery, while Bahrain recorded damage from drone shrapnel on a warehouse. Kuwaiti and Emirati authorities said air defences responded to multiple missile and drone launches overnight.