{"id":38407,"date":"2026-04-25T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/04\/25\/pentagon-chief-hegseth-blasts-europe-asia-for-free-riding-on-us-hormuz-action\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T15:30:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T07:30:53","slug":"pentagon-chief-hegseth-blasts-europe-asia-for-free-riding-on-us-hormuz-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/multimetro.hk\/plus\/2026\/04\/25\/pentagon-chief-hegseth-blasts-europe-asia-for-free-riding-on-us-hormuz-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon chief Hegseth blasts Europe, Asia for \u2018free-riding\u2019 on US Hormuz action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticised European and Asian countries for relying on the US military to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz after it was closed by the war against Iran.<br \/>&#8220;Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over,&#8221; Mr Hegseth said at a news conference on April 24. &#8220;America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal.&#8221;<br \/>The Pentagon chief said the US blockade of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil and gas flows out of the Persian Gulf, is growing stronger each day after reports that some vessels were circumnavigating US Navy vessels in the area.<br \/>The US launched the blockade amid Iranian resistance to President Donald Trump&#8217;s demands for a ceasefire, with the strait largely closed to tanker traffic by Iranian threats \u2013 raising global energy prices significantly since the US and Israel launched the war in late February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticised European and Asian countries for relying on the US military to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz after it was closed by the war against Iran.&#8220;Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over,&#8221; Mr Hegseth said at a news conference on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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