China won’t help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz as requested by Donald Trump, but it is probably welcoming the delay in Trump’s highly anticipated trip to Beijing as the U.S. risks getting bogged down in the Middle East, analysts say.

The latest developments are unfolding as Trump’s Iran war, in its third week, is faced with mounting pressure as oil has stopped moving through the strait and U.S. allies have refused to step up to secure the strait. That has produced concerns that China, the United States’ biggest geopolitical rival, could stand to benefit from a war that some say was ill-considered.

  • Humanius@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    While other NATO countries may have sustained their switch to renewables, we are not free from our dependence on oil and gas yet. And unlike the US which is a net-exporter of fossil fuels, Europe is a net-importer.

    This looming energy crisis is also seriously affecting European countries.

    I believe there are two main reasons why European countries are not keen on helping the US out of this:

    • Europe does not want to reward the way the US is currently treating its allies. There is no real guarantee that Trump will come to our aid if Russia invades, so why would we join the US into their ventures in the Middle East.
    • Europe also does not really benefit from escalating a destabilizing war in the Middle East. We have experience with the resulting refugee crisis and terrorist threats from the last few times that that happened.

    It also would have been helpful if the US involved us in the plans to start a war with Iran, as allies on an equal footing. But instead the US unilaterally (or together with Israel I guess) decided to bomb the Ayatollah, expecting the European vassals to just fall in line.

    “This is not our war”