Trump is making the Iran war a stress test for NATO

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Trump is making the Iran war a stress test for NATO

The US President is angry that NATO partners are not supporting the US in the Iran war. He threatens consequences. And he makes a remark that would be a sensation.

The Iran war is becoming a stress test for NATO. There is hardly any debate that US membership needs to be reconsidered after the end of the war, Trump told the British newspaper The Telegraph. The US government has been criticizing for weeks what it sees as a lack of support from NATO partners, particularly in the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz, which is important for world trade but blocked by Iran.

NATO is a “paper tiger,” Trump said. “We will have to re-examine the value of NATO and this alliance for our country,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an interview with Fox News. Both were alluding to the fact that European NATO partners have so far refused to actively support the Iran war and have sometimes even openly criticized it as violating international law.

In NATO, many people still view Trump and Rubio’s statements about their possible exit relatively calmly. It is assumed that the US government’s main aim is to force greater support for the US approach.

It is also pointed out that Trump would not be able to decide to leave NATO on his own due to national legal hurdles and that there would also be significant economic and military disadvantages. Trump, for example, would risk that Europeans would become even more technologically emancipated and buy significantly less military equipment from American companies. The US industry could lose billions in business. In addition, the USA may have to close strategically important military sites in Europe.

Meanwhile, on his online platform Truth Social, Trump made a remark that amounted to a sensation. Afterwards, the Islamic Republic is said to have asked for a ceasefire. The US president attributed the request for a ceasefire to “Iran’s new regime president.” Who exactly he meant by that remained unclear.

Trump further wrote on the platform that they would think about it when the Strait of Hormuz was freely passable. Until then, Iran will be bombed into the “Stone Age.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman rejected Trump’s comments following an alleged request for a ceasefire. Ismail Baghai was quoted by state broadcaster Irib as saying that the statements were false and unfounded. “These are deceptions by the US to justify its illegitimate war policy,” Baghai said, according to the report.

According to previously stated information, Trump expects the US attacks in Iran to end in two to three weeks. There is no need for a deal with Tehran for this. That was “irrelevant” because they were ensuring that Iran’s rulers could not build nuclear weapons, he said.

Meanwhile, during the war, the parties’ respective attacks continued. In Kuwait, fuel tanks at the international airport were hit by drones, the country’s civil aviation authority said overnight. According to initial findings, only property damage was caused. A tanker came under fire off the coast of Qatar. The British Merchant Shipping Safety Authority (UKMTO) said there was damage to the hull above the water surface.