The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has declared in an interview for the British newspaper The Telegraph that he considers abandoning NATO due to the lack of military support in the conflict with Iran by the allies of the Atlantic Alliance. These statements come after the American leader's criticisms of allied countries such as France or Great Britain and define the alliance as "a paper tiger".
The president pointed out that for a long time he has maintained doubts about NATO's credibility. "I would say it's a more than firm decision," Trump told the newspaper when asked if he would reconsider the U.S.'s permanence in the alliance after the conflict. "I never let myself be convinced by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin also knows it," the American president concluded.
Tension with allies has worsened as a result of several countries having refused to support the American offensive or to facilitate key infrastructure for the operations. This disagreement has generated strong discontent in the White House and has reopened the debate about Washington's commitment to the Alliance.
Spain has come to occupy a central place in Washington's discomfort after refusing to facilitate the use of the Rota (Cádiz) and Morón (Seville) bases and closing its airspace to US military operations linked to the conflict. These decisions have been interpreted as a gesture of disloyalty within the Alliance.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has already warned that the United States “will have to reexamine” its relationship with NATO once the war ends, and has called the lack of allied support during the conflict “very disappointing.”
From the U.S. Administration, the sense of the alliance is also questioned if it functions as "a one-way street", that is, if the U.S. assumes the defense of Europe but does not receive support when it needs it in crisis scenarios like the current one.
