Donald Trump has asked for Britain’s help to save the Strait of Hormuz from closure while also calling for other foreign leaders to send ships to the strategic passage. 

The US President asked for help from France, Japan, South Korea and China, a country which has long been considered his country’s geopolitical rival. 

Trump’s new post on Truth Social suggests Iran has been successful in bringing the strategic water passage to a close. 

In recent days, Tehran has launched several missile strikes on vessels passing through the Strait, as well as sending its own explosive-laden ships, amid threats to send the price of oil to $200 per barrel. 

‘Many countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending warships in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe,’ Trump wrote. 

‘We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close-range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.’ 

Trump went on to call on several states that ‘are affected by this artificial constraint’, including the UK, to send vessels to Strait in a bid to help unblock one of the world’s most important shipping routes. 

‘In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water,’ he said, later vowing to get the passage ‘open, safe and free’ ‘one way or another’.

Meanwhile, Britain’s HMS Dragon was only just deployed on Tuesday and has spent the last three days ‘bobbing around in the Channel’ after being sent to defend the nation’s forces from Iranian drone attacks in Cyprus. 

And the £1billion Type-45 destroyer only departed from UK waters yesterday, despite having been deployed several days earlier amid mounting criticism over Britain’s slow response to the conflict. 

After leaving the harbour, the warship switched off its transporter – a system which broadcasts a vessel’s position – meaning its movements could no longer be publicly monitored.  

HMS Dragon had also been scheduled to stop at Plymouth for a crew change, but those plans were reportedly abandoned as pressure mounted to get the vessel to the east of the Mediterranean.

And despite previous rebukes to the US-Israel’s attacks on Iran, Sir Keir Starmer ordered HMS Dragon’s departure after RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, was struck by an enemy drone on March 1. 

And while the Royal Navy vessel, which is heading to the Mediterranean Sea, is equipped with the country’s best air defence missiles and can launch several interceptor missiles at once, he continues to be criticised for his slow response.

HMS Dragon should have been ready to sail at 72 hours’ notice. It was docked and undergoing welding work before being thrust back into service by the Royal Navy. 

Navy sources have since insisted ‘they did six weeks’ work in six days’ to get her ready to sail to the Mediterranean; however, this explanation has done little to quieten critics.

In Cyprus, Britain has become a laughing stock among locals, with one giggling when asked about the UK’s course of action, quipping: ‘What response? There was no response’.

Nicholas Andreo, 35, an engineer from Sakak near RAF Akrotiri, added: ‘There was a response from France, from Greece, from Italy.’

Told that HMS Dragon had only just left British waters on Friday, Mr Andreo asked pointedly: ‘So the ship is still coming? Who is going to protect the ship – not Britain.

‘It is frustrating. What’s happening now is happening because of your base. Cyprus is in danger because of the English base. But the people who own the base? They are not even here.

‘I think Britain now is lost. The whole country is a mess. You know, I think maybe 10 years ago maybe things were different.

‘But now the government has many problems, internal and external, and now your mess is coming to Cyprus. Because of the British, and because of Trump,’ he sniped. ‘It is embarrassing.’

Shopkeeper Andreas Kyriacou, 80, said the Cypriot government had made a mistake allowing ‘so many’ helicopters, aeroplanes, ships to come to the island.

‘We don’t have a problem here, the problems are outside Cyprus but now people do not come,’ he said. ‘Britain has a responsibility, it is their bases that brought this and now they must explain.

‘They send one big, big ship – we don’t want it here. It only brings problems. Why would anyone attack us without these bases? This war is very damaging.

‘The people are afraid and do not know what is going to happen, the prices are going up because of the all, the tourists have stopped coming.’

Petros Pavlou, 87, of Asomatos and works near the RAF base as an electrician, said:  ‘We know your friendship. England has supported us every time. We remember 1955 to 1959, how Britain supported the Cypriots against Turkey.

‘The base gave us security, and it gives people jobs. But if the base was not here, we would not have had this attack. Now I think more people think that, sadly after your response.’

A Cypriot living in Akrotiri who gave his name as Andreas, 33, said: ‘The locals here have problems with the British.

‘The British don’t know how to act anymore. They don’t know what game they are going to play with us now.’

Marios, who lives with his wife and two children near the base, said: ‘For us living by this base, this is the first time we are afraid.

‘Now we are only safe because we have Greece and Spain and other countries here. Britain is sending its one ship. 

‘I think we need more safety from England, it is their base here,’ he added. ‘It is quite late.’

Elsewhere, HMS Prince of Wales was recently upgraded to advanced readiness, amid the ongoing criticism of Britain’s military response to the conflict in the Middle East. 

This means the crew of the £3billion ship, currently undergoing repairs in Portsmouth, must be ready to sail with five days’ notice.

HMS Prince of Wales could also require a French escort to the Middle East if there are not enough British military vessels to do the job. 

Crew members have reportedly been alerted to a potential mission, but with most of the Royal Navy’s warships unavailable or broken, allies such as France, the US and other European nation may be called upon to take their place.

An aircraft carrier usually needs to be accompanied by two or three warships, either destroyers or frigates, and an attack submarine – although it’s understood no decision has been taken over whether to deploy the carrier, or whether it would be escorted.

The Royal Navy has six destroyers in total, but only one, HMS Dragon, is thought to be action-ready but is already on its way to protect the British sovereign base in Cyprus.

And of the fleet’s seven frigates, only HMS Somerset and HMS St Albans are understood to be available, with the rest needing maintenance or problems to be fixed. 

James Cartlidge, the shadow defence secretary, told The Telegraph: ‘Labour’s talk of putting a carrier on greater readiness is a distraction from the real question: why didn’t Starmer plan properly and move naval assets weeks ago, when a major US operation was clearly coming?

‘The truth is Labour have prioritised welfare over defence, leaving an under-funded Ministry of Defence forced to make £2.6bn in cuts this year. 

‘That’s why there are no Royal Navy warships in the Middle East and why even if a carrier were deployed, there would be serious questions about escort ships.’

It comes after Donald Trump launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, saying: ‘This is not Winston Churchill we are dealing with.’

The US President delivered a withering verdict on the Prime Minister as he continued to fume at Sir Keir for failing to back US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

In comments that immediately plunged the so-called ‘special relationship’ into an unprecedented crisis, Mr Trump declared that he was ‘not happy’ with the PM and accused him of being ‘very, very uncooperative’.

Speaking in the White House, the US President hit out again at Sir Keir’s initial decision to block the US using British bases to launch attacks on Tehran.

In an apparent reference to Diego Garcia in the Chagos Islands, the US President said: ‘That island… It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land there.

‘It would have been much more convenient landing there as opposed to flying many extra hours, so we are very surprised.’

Referring to Britain’s war-time PM, a bust of whom sits in the Oval Office, Mr Trump added: ‘This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.’

The US President went on to criticise the UK’s approach to the ‘stupid island’ as he issued a fresh blast at Sir Keir’s bid to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

‘This is not the age of Churchill. I will say the UK has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have, that they gave away and took a 100-year lease,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office, as he sat alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

‘Having to do with, perhaps, indigenous people claiming the island that never even saw the island before. What’s that all about? They ruin relationships, it’s a shame.’

Today, a missile has struck a helipad inside the US Embassy in Baghdad with plumes of smoke seen above in the skies of the Iraqi capital. 

It comes after Donald Trump said on Truth Social that the US had ‘totally obliterated’ all military targets in ‘Iran’s crown jewel’, Kharg Island. 

The US President also vowed to ‘wipe out’ oil infrastructure on the island if Iran continued its attacks on vessels on the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran retaliated by striking a major oil hub in the UAE, with clouds of black smoke seen billowing into the skies above the port of Fujairah following a drone attack.

Former Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, has also threatened to ‘capture’ US forces if they make an attempt to seize oil infrastructure in Kharg Island.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has also warned that US ‘hideouts’ in the UAE are ‘legitimate’ targets after Trump attacked the export terminal.