PODCAST:
March 16, 2026 ~ Chris Renwick, Lloyd Jackson, and Jamie Edmonds speak with Brian Katulis, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. They discuss confusing messages on the U.S. position on Iran and strategy shifts.
IRAN ~ President Donald Trump is calling on other nations to help the U.S. forcibly reopen the Strait of Hormuz, possibly with warships, as the war rages between the U.S. and Iran.
Trump has made the requests in recent days, signaling out China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the U.K. in a Truth Social post. He later warned that NATO faces a “very bad” future if the U.S. doesn’t receive military help from European allies and that he would delay a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping if China doesn’t get involved. Most nations have either shown little interest or declined to send warships to the strait vital to the global oil supply chain, with Spain, Japan, the U.K., and Australia all publicly declining to get involved.
Iran closed the Strait in retaliation for U.S.-Israeli offensive strikes on the country that began three weeks ago. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, reiterated Monday that the Strait is closed only to the nation’s “enemies,” being the U.S., Israel, and their allies.
So far, 1,444 people have been killed in Iran by U.S.-Israeli strikes, with 13 U.S. soldiers killed in retaliation across the region. Over two dozen people have been killed in Israel and the surrounding Gulf states.
