From his side, after putting pressure on Western nations, including France and the UK, on Monday, Donald Trump seemed to backtrack on Tuesday on his request for international military support to unblock the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz – through which about 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally circulates, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. “We no longer need and do not want help from NATO countries. We have never needed it,” he said, also mentioning Japan, Australia, and South Korea among the countries that rejected his requests for assistance. Earlier, Emmanuel Macron had made it clear that France would not engage in “operations” to secure the passage “in the current context” of “bombardments.”
Context: Donald Trump was seeking international military support to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global oil and gas transportation.
Fact Check: Emmanuel Macron had stated that France would not participate in military operations in the context of securing the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, conflict continued across the Middle East. In Baghdad, four people were killed in an upscale neighborhood. The US embassy was attacked twice, and a drone targeting an American diplomatic and logistics center was also shot down on Tuesday evening at the international airport. Iraq is being drawn into a conflict it had tried to avoid at all costs. The Hezbollah Brigades, a pro-Iranian group, criticized “American presence” in Iraq, once again calling for the departure of all foreign soldiers from the country.
In Lebanon, where authorities have documented 912 deaths since the start of the conflict, Israeli planes bombed neighborhoods in the southern suburbs of the capital once again. Three Lebanese army soldiers, remaining outside the conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, were also killed in Israeli attacks in the south. In addition to its strikes and threats to extend its ground operations in its neighbor, the Israeli army is determined to “track down, find, and neutralize” the new supreme Iranian leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since his appointment over a week ago.
