US Says ‘Confident' to Create PG Mission despite Lukewarm Responses

Pompeo and US Defense Secretary Mark Esper were speaking alongside their Australian counterparts in Sydney.

The US has asked a number of European and Asian nations to join its so-called international maritime patrol force, but the request has not been warmly received. During the press conference, Pompeo also asked Australia to join the US and help provide security for shipping trade in the Strait of Hormuz.

"We hope Australia will partner with us on some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges of our time, like efforts to stabilize Syria and keep Afghanistan free of terror, and confront the Islamic Republic of Iran's unprovoked attacks on international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz," he told reporters.

In response, Australian Defense Minister Linda Reynolds said Sydney was carefully weighing up the United States' request.

On Friday, Japan said it would not join the mission, adding that it may send its warships independently to protect Japanese ships in the world’s most important oil artery, according to the Mainichi newspaper.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also said recently that his country would not participate in the naval mission.

Washington has lately adopted a quasi-warlike posture against Tehran, and intensified its provocative military moves in the Middle East, among them the June 20 incursion of advanced US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk into Iranian airspace over territorial waters off the coastal province of Hormozgan.

The UK has joined the US in fueling tensions with Iran by seizing an Iranian-owned supertanker in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4 in an apparent act of “maritime piracy.”

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