WASHINGTON (Dunya News/Reuters) - US President Donald Trump has warned that any Iranian vessel approaching the US naval blockade would be destroyed.
In a statement shared on social media, Trump claimed that the Iranian navy had been pushed to the depths of the sea and said that 158 Iranian vessels had been completely destroyed.
The US president added that American forces had not targeted smaller Iranian boats, noting that fast attack ships do not pose a significant threat.
Trump further said that such operations are similar to actions taken against drug-smuggling boats at sea, describing them as swift and extremely strict.
He also claimed that 98.2 percent of drugs entering the United States via maritime routes had been intercepted.
Earlier, the United States' NATO allies said they would not get involved in President Donald Trump's plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, further ratcheting up tensions within the increasingly fragile alliance.
Trump said the US military would work with other countries to block all maritime traffic in the waterway, after weekend talks failed to reach an agreement to end the six-week conflict with Iran.
The NATO allies including Britain and France said they would not be drawn into the conflict by taking part in the blockade, saying instead that it was vital to open the waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil usually passes, which Iran has effectively closed since the conflict began on February 28.
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Their refusal to participate is yet another point of friction with Trump, who has threatened to withdraw from the military alliance and is weighing pulling some US troops from Europe after several countries resisted supporting the US campaign against Iran by denying US military planes use of their airspace.
CONSIDERABLE PRESSURE
"We're not supporting the blockade," British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the BBC.
"My decision has been very clearly that whatever the pressure, and there's been some considerable pressure, we're not getting dragged into the war," he said.