Recent U.S. complaints about NATO allies and threats to quit the alliance are pushing European countries to seek alternative security arrangements, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said on Tuesday.
After European countries declined to send their navies to open up the Strait of Hormuz to global shipping following the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran on 28 February, U.S. President Donald Trump has declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance, thrusting it into a crisis.
Albares said the decision was entirely up to Trump, but underscored that NATO allies stood in solidarity with Washington after the 11 September, 2001 attacks.
"NATO is a mutually beneficial alliance for both Europeans and Americans ... But the U.S. administration's remarks and new positions on Euro-Atlantic security are inviting us Europeans to take a leap in terms of our sovereignty and defence matters," Albares told La Sexta TV channel.
"We must take our citizens' security and dissuasion into our own hands," he added.
To do so, he said, the EU should advance toward a pan-European army and integrate its defence industries, but also create a digital single market and a capital markets union.
Spain's leftist government has become one of the most vocal critics of the war on Iran, which it calls illegal and reckless. It has closed Spanish airspace to U.S. planes involved in the strikes and banned them from using jointly operated military bases in southern Spain. Trump has vowed to retaliate against Spain using trade tariffs.
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Iran said on Sunday (10 May) that it had sent its response to a U.S. proposal aimed at launching peace talks to end the war, as signs of tentative movement emerged around the Strait of Hormuz despite renewed security incidents across the Gulf.
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Centre-right leader Péter Magyar was sworn in as Hungary’s prime minister on Saturday, propelled into office on promises of change after years of economic stagnation and strained ties with key allies under his predecessor Viktor Orbán.
Efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared to stall as the two sides exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz. A reported CIA assessment suggested Tehran could withstand a U.S. naval blockade for months despite mounting sanctions and renewed Gulf attacks.
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President Donald Trump called Iran’s response to a US war proposal “totally unacceptable” after Tehran sent its reply through mediator Pakistan, according to IRNA. Qatar’s al-Thani also warned Iran against using the Strait of Hormuz as “a pressure tool”.
Efforts to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared to stall as the two sides exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz. A reported CIA assessment suggested Tehran could withstand a U.S. naval blockade for months despite mounting sanctions and renewed Gulf attacks.
The U.S. and Iran exchanged fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, though both sides signalled they did not want escalation. The clashes come as Washington awaits Tehran’s response to a proposed deal to end the war while leaving key disputes, such as Iran’s nuclear programme, unresolved for now.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran remain far from a genuine ceasefire, as military posturing, sanctions and uncertainty over diplomacy continue to fuel fears of a broader regional confrontation.
Iran confirmed on Friday its Armed Forces responded to, what Tehran is calling, the U.S. Navy’s violation of the ceasefire. It said Iranian ships and civilian areas were attacked near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday evening.
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