Pete Hegseth has said the US naval blockade of Iranian ports “grows more powerful by the day”. The US defence secretary also hit out at Europe and Asia, saying they have “benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over”. He added: “We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do, and they might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat. This is much more their fight than ours.”