By Jaidaa Taha, Maya Gebeily, Emily Rose and Jarrett Renshaw
DUBAI/JERUSALEM/PALM BEACH, Florida, March 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump urged other nations to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, after Iran threatened escalation across the Middle East to retaliate for Washington's bombing of its main Gulf island energy hub.
Tehran's ability to stop shipping through the strait, a major channel for oil and gas shipping, could give it enormous leverage over the U.S. and its allies.
"The Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help — A LOT!" Trump wrote in a social media post. "The U.S. will also coordinate with those Countries so that everything goes quickly, smoothly, and well."
As the war entered its third week, Iran projected defiance after U.S. forces hit military sites at Kharg Island, the Gulf outpost that handles 90% of Iranian oil exports. A drone attack had already disrupted a United Arab Emirates energy hub, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad warned U.S. citizens to leave Iraq and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged the U.S. to move industries out of the region.
Since Israel and the United States began attacking Iran on February 28, the war has killed more than 2,000 people, mostly in Iran, and created the biggest-ever oil supply disruption, pushing up global prices.
At least 15 people were killed when an airstrike hit a refrigerator and heater factory in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, the semi-official Fars news agency said on Saturday.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Some oil-loading operations have been suspended in the UAE's Fujairah emirate, a global ship-refueling hub, industry and trade sources said on Saturday. The emirate's media office said a drone was intercepted, but civil defence forces as of late Saturday were still trying to put out a fire caused by falling debris.
An Iranian military spokesperson called on people in the UAE to evacuate ports, docks, and "American hideouts," saying U.S. forces had targeted Iranian islands from those areas.
'BOMBING THE HELL OUT OF THE SHORELINE'
Trump was spending the weekend at his Florida club. In an earlier post on his Truth Social platform, he anticipated that many countries would send warships to allow shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world's oil. He said in his post he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would send vessels.
"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 wrote.
There was no immediate indication of plans to do so by any of the countries.
French officials said on Friday their government was pushing on with efforts to assemble a coalition to secure the Strait of Hormuz once the security situation stabilizes.
A British Ministry of Defence spokesperson said on Saturday: "As we’ve said previously, we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region."
While Trump made his appeal mostly to traditional U.S. allies, historically neutral Switzerland distanced itself from any involvement. The Swiss Federal Council said it rejected two U.S. requests to allow reconnaissance aircraft to fly through Swiss airspace on Sunday en route to Iran, although approval was granted for a maintenance flight and two transport aircraft.
Trump had threatened to strike the oil infrastructure of Kharg Island unless Tehran stopped attacking vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. He said on Friday the U.S. had "totally obliterated" military targets there, not energy assets.
U.S. Central Command later said it hit more than 90 sites on Kharg, including naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers and other military targets.
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaced his slain father, has said the Strait of Hormuz should remain closed.
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi dismissed speculation from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that Khamenei was wounded and likely disfigured. "There is no problem with the new supreme leader. He sent his message yesterday, and he will perform his duties," Araqchi told MS Now.
Khamenei has not appeared in public, instead issuing a statement on Thursday read by a television presenter.
IRAN ACCUSED UAE OF HARBORING SITES FOR U.S. ATTACKS
Iran played down the extent of the damage on Kharg Island while threatening to step up its use of more powerful weapons, accusing the UAE of harboring sites for U.S. missile attacks and warning that parts of that country are legitimate targets for retaliatory strikes.
Araqchi said Iran would respond to any attack on its energy facilities and warned it would target U.S. companies in the region or companies in which the U.S. had shares.
The UAE's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to the Iranian accusation that the attack on Kharg Island came through the UAE.
Nine ballistic missiles and 33 drones were launched from Iran towards the UAE on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said.
Iran warned residents to leave areas near Jebel Ali port in Dubai, Khalifa port in Abu Dhabi and the UAE's Fujairah port and said it was targeting branches of U.S. banks in the Gulf.
Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is the outlet for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE's Murban crude oil — a volume equal to about 1% of world demand.
Resentment had already been mounting in Gulf Arab capitals at being drawn into a war they neither initiated nor endorsed, but are now paying for economically and militarily, regional sources have told Reuters.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said in an X post on Saturday: "The Iranian strategy, which reflects its inability to confront U.S. and Israeli strikes by targeting Arab Gulf states, reveals a military impotence, a moral bankruptcy, and a political isolation."
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Steve Gorman, Simon Lewis, Stephen Coates, Matthias Williams and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by William Mallard, Jon Boyle, Rod Nickel and Sergio Non)
