President Donald Trump’s frenemy Emmanuel Macron has taken a sly dig at his plans to pry open the Strait of Hormuz.
On Sunday, Trump announced a “humanitarian gesture” to guide neutral ships out of the narrow waterway that the U.S. has blockaded. He said the plan, dubbed “Project Freedom,” would begin on Monday morning Middle Eastern time. Tehran pushed back, saying that “any foreign armed force, especially the aggressive U.S. army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter” the strategically important waterway.
Macron, too, jabbed at Trump’s latest plan to fix the issue he created himself. While he described the idea to reopen the waterway as “very good,” he pointed out that it is something that allies “have been asking for from the start.”
He also needled Trump for its potential to go south, and lamented the lack of a clear time frame. “But we are not going to take part in any forceful operation within a framework that does not seem clear to me,” Macron told reporters at the European Political Community meeting in Yerevan, Armenia.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who weathered Trump’s complaints about the alliance during a White House visit last month, warned his EU allies that the president was unhappy with the lack of help offered in the region.
Trump has, on several occasions, called NATO a “paper tiger” and lashed out at several traditional allies who have not agreed to assist with his war.
“European leaders have gotten the message,” Rutte said on Monday. “There has been some disappointment from the U.S. side when it comes to the European reaction” to Operation Epic Fury.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer set the tone regarding leaving the U.S. and Israel to deal with the war when he declined to let Trump use U.K. air bases in Cyprus for strikes. He followed up by talking down the merits of the war and pledging no support at the Strait of Hormuz, earning Trump’s ire along the way. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also blasted the conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz, a conduit through which much of the world’s oil supply flows, has become a major sticking point in the war’s cessation. Iran has announced de facto control over the Strait, something it didn’t have before Epic Fury. Trump has pushed back hard, blocking the waterway and barring any ships from passing without American say-so.
On Sunday, he announced that “Project Freedom” would begin to release ships sailing under neutral flags that are stuck in the Persian Gulf. U.S. Central Command said it would back the effort with 15,000 troops, more than 100 aircraft operating on land and at sea, and warships and drones.
Trump said U.S. forces would “guide” the ships, but well-placed sources clarified that American personnel will merely oversee the operation, rather than use U.S. vessels to literally guide ships through the Strait.
In response, Iran has threatened to attack. “We warn that any foreign armed force, especially the aggressive U.S. army, will be attacked if they attempt to approach and enter the Strait of Hormuz,” the Iranian military said in a statement released on Monday morning.
