Trump pressures Europe, threatens to halt arms for Ukraine if it refuses Hormuz naval mission

Financial News reported that United States President Donald John Trump has threatened to cut off weapons supplies to Ukraine if European countries do not join U.S. military efforts to keep the Strait of Hormuz open.
On the 1st (local time), the Financial Times (FT), citing sources, reported that President Trump sought help from North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid a global surge in fuel prices. However, when European countries balked at becoming involved in a war with the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran), he pressured them by threatening to suspend support for the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL), a program under which NATO members buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine.
One source told the FT that at the time, President Trump reacted to Europe’s refusal in a "somewhat hysterical" manner.
In an interview the same day with United Kingdom daily The Daily Telegraph, President Trump said, "Ukraine was not our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, but they were not there for us," openly voicing his frustration with U.S. allies.
He went on to liken NATO to a paper tiger and added that he was seriously considering pulling out of the alliance.
The FT report came less than a month after the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, was blockaded by Iran and the United States and the State of Israel went to war with Tehran.
On March 19, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and key allies including France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), and Germany issued a joint statement saying they were "ready to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz."
A U.S. government official said, "The reason Secretary General Rutte rushed to issue the statement was that President Trump had threatened to walk away from the PURL program and from support for Ukraine altogether," adding, "It was a hastily drafted statement, put together so quickly that not all countries could even be invited to join it."
Anna Kelly, deputy spokesperson for the White House, stated, "President Trump has made his disappointment with NATO and other allies clear, and he has stressed that 'America will remember.'"
There have also been reports that the United States Department of Defense (DoD) was considering diverting weapons originally bound for Ukraine to the Middle East.
However, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha moved to calm concerns, saying that at the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers’ meeting on the 29th of last month, he received a clear assurance from United States Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio that "no previously pledged military aid will be redirected to the Middle East."
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy also responded to Washington’s demands on the 30th of last month, announcing that Ukraine would provide weapons and defensive technology to help lift the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as part of a new defense agreement with Gulf states.

jjyoon@fnnews.com Yoon Jae-jun Reporter