US President Donald Trump is putting public pressure on allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Trump said the US is talking to seven countries about patrolling the strait to protect shipping, claiming that Washington has been “maintaining” the waterway “for years”. He did not say which countries Washington had been in contact with.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that the White House would soon announce a coalition of countries willing to escort ships through the strait.
Mr Trump also said Nato faces a “very bad future” if member countries do not help the US in the war on Iran, particularly with regard to the strait.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the Strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” he told the Financial Times.
Mr Trump added that he might delay his summit with China’s President Xi Jinping later this month as he presses Beijing to help unblock the crucial waterway.
It comes as energy prices continue to soar and pressure increases on Mr Trump at home to bring them down.
Mr Trump later claimed on Air Force One that Iran wanted to negotiate “badly”.
“They want to negotiate, they want to negotiate badly. I don't think they're ready. Just from what I'm hearing, they want to negotiate badly. As they should,” he said on Air Force One. “But I don't think they're ready, they can do what they have to do. But I think they will be ready at some point.”
He added: “I don't know that I want to make a deal yet because, you know what, first of all, nobody even knows who you're dealing with because most of their leadership has been killed, as you know, right? So I don't even know that we want to make a deal.”
This comes after Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier on Sunday that Tehran had never asked for a ceasefire or renewed negotiations because the US had attacked his country when previous talks were under way.
Meanwhile, one of Mr Trump's aides said the Pentagon estimates that the war, now in its third week, will take between four and six weeks.
Kevin Hassett, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, said the ultimate decision about when the war will conclude lies with Mr Trump.
He was one of several administration officials on Sunday asking Americans for patience as energy prices rise.
The Pentagon believes “that we’re ahead of schedule”, Mr Hassett told CBS’s Face the Nation. “We expect that the global economy is going to have a big positive shock as soon as this is over,” he said.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright indicated that the war may last several more weeks.
