President Trump hits out at US allies over Iran
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump hits out at US allies over Iran -- telling them to grow a backbone and go and get the oil stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. His Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth then joins the fray. Do they have a point?
Also in the programme: has the European Union reached breaking point with Israel? A NASA scientist on a huge week for space travel; and wolf bites woman on a German city street - we hear the case for the defence.
(IMAGE: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026 / CREDIT: REUTERS/Stringer//File Photo)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.8 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service Studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. |
| 0:17.5 | Iran may still be the main target for the combined might of the US and Israeli military, but |
| 0:23.1 | today once again President Trump has also taken aim at his country's allies, in particular |
| 0:28.8 | the United Kingdom. |
| 0:29.8 | Get some courage, he said in an early morning social media post, go to the Strait of |
| 0:35.2 | Hormuz and seize the blockaded oil yourselves. And while you're at |
| 0:39.2 | it, start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like |
| 0:44.6 | you weren't there for us when we decapitated Iran. Shortly afterwards, his defence secretary, |
| 0:50.5 | Pete Hegseth, in a briefing to journalists journalists amplified the call with a rather sardonic dig |
| 0:55.7 | at Britain's naval forces. I think the President was clear this morning in his truth, |
| 1:01.3 | that there are countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical |
| 1:08.2 | waterway as well. It's not just the United States Navy. Last time I checked, |
| 1:12.1 | there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like that as well. |
| 1:16.7 | So he's pointing out, this is an international waterway that we use less than most, in fact, |
| 1:20.9 | dramatically less than most. |
| 1:22.9 | Pete Axeff a little earlier today. Professor Kevin Rowlands is the former head of the British |
| 1:27.6 | Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre. He's now journal editor at the London-based military think tank, |
| 1:33.2 | the Royal United Services Institute. Is it feasible for the UK and other countries to just go and get |
| 1:40.4 | the oil, as Donald Trump suggests? Is it feasible? Well, I guess it is. It's a question of timing, though, of course. |
| 1:47.3 | Does he mean get it after the fighting was finished or get it when bombs and missiles are still |
| 1:53.8 | flying? Because those are two very different things. If it's after the war, the kinetic war, |
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