WATCH: Ex-NATO chief draws red line as Trump fumes alliance abandoned US during Iran war
Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signaled clear limits on the alliance’s role in the Iran conflict, saying it should not be pulled into supporting U.S. military operations even as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on European allies — exposing a growing divide over what NATO is meant to do.
“NATO is a defensive alliance,” Stoltenberg, now Norway’s finance minister, told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday. “The strikes or the war against Iran were never an attempt to make that into a NATO operation.”
Stoltenberg framed the disagreement not over whether Iran poses a threat, but over how to confront it, with European governments favoring sanctions and diplomatic pressure over direct military involvement.
“We all agree the Iranian nuclear program is dangerous,” he said. “The question is how we achieve that goal.”
The divide reflects a deeper mismatch between Washington and its allies: Trump has treated the conflict as a test of NATO support — urging countries that benefit from the Strait of Hormuz to help secure it militarily — while European governments have largely rejected that approach, arguing the war falls outside the alliance’s mandate.
Trump has sharply criticized NATO allies for refusing to back U.S. operations tied to the conflict, at times questioning the alliance’s value and warning it had failed a key test as tensions escalated in the Strait of Hormuz.
“NATO wasn’t there for us, and they won’t be there for us in the future,” Trump said Wednesday on Truth Social.
The president has alternated between pressuring allies to step up and downplaying their importance, at one point calling NATO’s response a “very foolish mistake” while also insisting the United States “doesn’t need any help.”
Major European powers have resisted Trump’s push to provide military support.
“The feeling is, this is not Europe’s war,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters in an interview published March 17.
Spain blocked U.S. aircraft involved in the Iran conflict from using its airspace and denied access to key bases at Rota and Morón, forcing American forces to reroute missions. France has provided limited logistical support but restricted certain overflight requests tied to military operations, reviewing them on a case-by-case basis.
This is an excerpt from an article by Fox News’ Morgan Phillips.
