By rejecting Trump’s demand on protecting Strait of Hormuz, NATO allies have arguably declared no-confidence against US and Israel’s war on Iran
European allies of the United States have all but redeemed whatever was left of their reputation by refusing Donald Trump’s diktat, asking them to send warships to protect international freight traffic blocked by Iran from sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
By rejecting Trump’s demand outright, the US’s NATO allies have arguably declared no-confidence in Trump’s act of initiating an unprovoked, illegal war along with Israel, against Iran. In the process, Tehran may have well scored a moral victory while the US has come out looking like a “rogue” nation.
No planning, endgame or, strategy
Two weeks into the coordinated missile strikes by the US and Israel on Iran, it is becoming clearer by the day to the rest of the world that there was no planning, endgame or, for that matter, any concrete strategy. For Israel, it was the fulfilment of a long-standing wish to strike Iran. For Trump, it was “regime change” and the fantasy of the Islamic dispensation being replaced by a US, Israel-friendly government in Tehran.
It is redeeming for the big European powers like Germany, Britain and France to dismiss Trump’s ask for their warships to help open the Strait of Hormuz for international trade. But what is a bigger surprise is the U-turn of US allies in Europe, given how these nations had turned themselves into toadies of Trump in recent years.
Also read: Latest Live news on Iran war
Lest it be mistaken, there is no change in how European allies view Iran, which is seen as a nation that is “surreptitiously” trying to acquire nuclear military prowess. The NATO nations continue to support the US and Israel in their attack on Iran. Besides criticising its nuclear programme, they term the government in Tehran as a “repressive regime”. But that was as long as they were on the sidelines cheering Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu bombing Iran. Now that Trump is calling them to duty in the Strait of Hormuz, they hesitate.
Spain, it must be mentioned, has been an outlier, stoutly rejecting Trump’s many moves including on tariffs and Greenland besides refusing to open up US bases – Rota and Moron – for its attacks on Iran.
Finally, a ‘no’
For Trump, the rejection by NATO allies echoes a sharp drop in the world’s response to his varied demands, mostly irrational and unpredictable. The latest diktat (Trump is hardly known to “request” anyone for anything) for his allies’ help is the clearest indication that the missile strikes against Iran are not going the way it was planned. Whether it is a sign of Trump’s desperation will be known soon. The world is watching, unable to comprehend the madness over the Middle East, or West Asia, even as it suffers the adverse consequences of this Trumpian indiscretion over Iran.
It must have taken a lot for Trump to swallow his pride and approach his Western allies given that he has hardly treated them with respect since taking over as president, particularly for his second term. When he embarked on his attempt to end the Ukraine-Russia war that was triggered when his predecessor Joe Biden was in power, he treated his European partners with utmost disdain, bordering on contempt.
They were shocked when he publicly tried to arm-twist Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into agreeing for a ceasefire on Russian terms. But he hardly cared. And, until now, his efforts at making peace between Russia and Ukraine barely includes the views of his European allies.
Also read: If US has the strongest Navy, why can’t it secure Strait of Hormuz alone?
Trump’s antipathy for NATO was well articulated during the first term itself when he said it was time the organisation was disbanded. Since then, the US president has kept up the pressure on NATO, and has demanded that the European nations increase their contribution and relieve the US from its “burden” of having to protect its allies. NATO nations almost silently absorbed Trump’s insults and worse, tried to see merit in what he was saying.
Culmination of a broken deal
On the Iran issue, Trump’s lack of respect for US’s NATO allies came through in his first term when in 2018 he abruptly walked out of the nuclear deal with Iran, signed by his predecessor Barack Obama along with European nations, popularly called the P5+1 agreement (meaning the five UN Security Council members, Germany and the European Union). The current ongoing strikes against Iran is, in fact, the culmination of that broken deal.
Iran expected that the big European powers that once ruled the world, like Britain, Germany and France, would stand up to the 2015 deal. Instead, after a round of initial disapproval, all of them went along with Trump and ended up backing his contentious action. Not just that, they implicitly backed Israel and the US and joined in the effort to pressure Iran out of its nuclear ambition.
Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump from 2020-2024 claimed he would get the deal back on track, but did not manage to resurrect the Iran deal. This proved to be convenient for Trump, when he returned to power in 2025.
Red line crossed
Trump, along with Israel, embarked on the 12-day war last June striking Iran’s nuclear facilities and famously claimed he had destroyed Tehran’s capabilities. As it has been the norm, Trump’s claims turned out to be a bunch of half-truths as Iran in the current conflagration has proved more than a match for the world’s top power along with the other militarily-strong nation, Israel.
Also read: Trump claims Iran’s Gulf strikes were a ‘surprise’; US intel docs say otherwise: Report
The maverick US president, using his trademark bullismo, has warned Europe it is going to “very bad” if they refuse his demand. But the fact that his warning has been disregarded shows that Trump has crossed the red line as far as his thus-far pusillanimous NATO allies are concerned.
The previous disagreement was over Trump’s threat to “acquire” Greenland that yanked the European nations out of their comfort zones. They had to perforce object to Trump’s audacious demand on a fellow-ally Denmark that governs Greenland. In that instance, Trump who had even threatened military action if necessary, backed down and said he will go ahead only through negotiations.
Trump’s growing isolation
This time around, Trump has criticised the US’s closest ally Britain and its Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not agreeing to join him in striking Iran, for refusing to allow airbases to facilitate American fighters in their operations against Iran and now, for refusing to go with his missive to protect the Strait of Hormuz.
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had sat silent in the White House when Trump went on a verbal assault against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, finally found the courage to tell the US President that his country would not join him in the conflict with Iran.
Also read: Iran weighs 'China-only' terms for limited reopening of Strait of Hormuz
Europe’s resistance to Trump, though a trifle late, is probably the final straw for Trump, who is gradually finding himself isolated even among his allies, which include Australia and Japan, with no takers for his war against Iran, a turn of events that still affords the best chance of an end to the conflict.
