By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The United States has done the lion's share of the work in making Iran less of a threat and other countries now need to step up to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz waterway, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday.
Hegseth cited President Donald Trump's early morning exhortation to other countries to loosen Iran's stranglehold on the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies flow.
"There are countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well. It's not just the United States Navy," Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference.
"So the world ought to pay attention to be prepared to stand up. President Trump has been willing to do the heavy lifting on behalf of the free world to address this threat of Iran. It's not just our problem set going forward."
Trump earlier on Tuesday urged countries that did not help in the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran to buy American oil and go to the Strait of Hormuz and "just TAKE it."
In posts on Truth Social, he singled out Britain and France as unhelpful in the month-long war that has roiled global markets, driven up energy prices and seen Iran effectively close oil tanker traffic through the Strait.
Trump later told CBS News he was not yet ready to abandon U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait. "At some point I will, not quite yet. But countries have to come in and take care of it," Trump told CBS.
Hegseth also said the next few days in the Middle East conflict would be decisive, saying there had been major desertions from the Iranian armed forces.
Citing intelligence, Hegseth said: "Our strikes are damaging the morale of the Iranian military, leading to widespread desertions, key personnel shortages and causing frustrations amongst senior leaders."
"We have more and more options, and they have less ... in only one month we set the terms, the upcoming days will be decisive," he said. "Iran knows that, and there's almost nothing they can militarily do about it."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Russia has been supplying Iran with drones and intelligence to help Tehran.
Asked about reports of Russia and China aiding Iran, Hegseth said: "As far as Russia and China, we know exactly what they're doing, what they are or are not doing."
"We don't have to air publicly what all of that is, but where necessary, we're addressing it, we're mitigating it or we're confronting it head on," he said without elaborating.
Hegseth also said he had visited troops in the Middle East on Saturday to witness the military operation against Iran.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, writing by David Ljunggren and Doina Chiacu, editing by Michelle Nichols, Alexandra Hudson)
