<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, is joined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, left, for a photo opportunity at the State Department, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Rod Lamkey\/AP<\/p>\n
FILE – President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Oct. 22, 2025, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Alex Brandon\/AP<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte leaves the podium after the launch of the NATO Secretary General’s Annual Report for 2025 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, March 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Virginia Mayo\/AP<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has weathered a fresh ordeal with President Donald Trump, this time over the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, a conflict that does not even involve the world\u2019s biggest military alliance and one it was never consulted about.<\/p>\n
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Since launching the war, Trump has derided U.S. allies as \u201ccowards,\u201d slammed NATO as \u201ca paper tiger\u201d and compared U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to Neville Chamberlain, who is probably best remembered for a policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n
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That comes on top of Trump\u2019s repeated threats to seize control of Greenland, which have deeply strained relations with U.S. allies in NATO and raised fears that doing by force could spell the end of the organization.<\/p>\n
In recent days, the man who is as good as chairman of the NATO board suggested that the U.S. might leave the trans-Atlantic alliance. Trump already threatened to walk out in 2018 during his first term. His complaint now is that some allies ignored his call to help as Iran effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade waterway.<\/p>\n
After talks with Rutte on Wednesday, the alliance\u2019s most powerful leader took to social media to show his annoyance. \u201cNATO WASN\u2019T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON\u2019T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,\u201d Trump posted.<\/p>\n
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Peppered with questions later on CNN about whether Trump intended to take America out of NATO, Rutte said: \u201cHe is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies, and I can see his point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keeping America in<\/p>\n
Rutte has earned a reputation as a \u201cTrump whisperer,\u201d notably helping to draw up a plan that has seen European allies and Canada buy U.S. weapons for Ukraine, and keep the administration involved in Europe\u2019s biggest war in decades.<\/p>\n
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Indeed, one of his most demanding tasks since taking office in 2024 has been to keep the mercurial U.S. leader engaged in NATO, particularly as America has set its sights on security challenges elsewhere, in the Indo-Pacific, Venezuela, and most recently Iran.<\/p>\n
Rutte has used flattery, praising Trump for forcing allies to spend more on defense. He has congratulated the U.S. leader over the war and refrained from criticizing Trump\u2019s warning that \u201ca whole civilization will die\u201d should Iran not reopen the strait.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a very frank, very open discussion but also a discussion between two good friends,\u201d Rutte told CNN. He declined to confirm reports that Trump is considering moving U.S. troops out of European countries that do not support the war.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the world is safer thanks to the U.S.-Israel war, Rutte said: \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
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War launched by a NATO member, not at one<\/p>\n
The striking thing about the war on Iran is that NATO has no role to play there. As a defensive alliance it has protected ally Turkey when Iranian missiles were fired in retaliation at its territory, but the war was launched by a NATO member, not at one.<\/p>\n
Rutte himself has said that NATO would not join the war, and there is no public confirmation that the U.S. had even raised the issue at the organization\u2019s Brussels headquarters, although it cannot be ruled out that the administration made a request on Wednesday for that to happen.<\/p>\n
NATO declined to say whether security for the strait has been officially discussed and referred questions to the United Kingdom, which is leading an effort outside the alliance to make the trade route safe for shipping once the ceasefire is working.<\/p>\n
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Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Thursday that his country is always ready to consider providing support through NATO to partners who request it there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the U.S. or any other NATO ally is asking (for) our support, we are always read to discuss it,\u201d he told broadcaster CNBC. \u201cBut for that, we need of course the official ask to discuss then what is the mission, what is the goal?\u201d<\/p>\n
If allies \u201cneed our support, then we need to plan together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
NATO trying to stay out<\/p>\n
Rutte himself insists that the alliance will only defend itself, and not become involved in another conflict outside of NATO territory, which is considered to be much of Europe and North America.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is Iran, this is the Gulf, this is outside NATO territory,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
NATO has operated outside of the Euro-Atlantic area in the past, notably in Libya and Afghanistan. But there is no appetite to do so again given its chaotic U.S.-led exit from Afghanistan in 2021, which former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg described as a \u201cdefeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump’s ire seems most directed at Spain and France, rather than NATO itself. Spain has closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in the Iran war and has refused U.S. forces the use of jointly operated military bases.<\/p>\n
After the two-week ceasefire was announced, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez posted on X that his government \u201cwill not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat\u2019s needed now: diplomacy, international legality, and PEACE,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
France has been critical, insisting that the war was launched without respecting international law and that Paris was never consulted about it. No blanket restrictions were placed on the use of joint bases or its airspace, but French authorities have said they\u2019re making such decisions on a case by case basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, is joined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, left, for a photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[12,34,13399,264,186,389,13909,11004,572,573,304,569,570,3215,3010],"class_list":{"0":"post-18263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marco-rubio","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-jens-stoltenberg","11":"tag-keir-starmer","12":"tag-marco-rubio","13":"tag-mark-rutte","14":"tag-nato-iran-rutte-trump-hormuz-support","15":"tag-neville-chamberlain","16":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","17":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","18":"tag-pedro-sanchez","19":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","20":"tag-product-31998-ap-online-national-news","21":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","22":"tag-product-46986-ap-online-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116374910374170157","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}