Because of the Iran dispute Pentagon considers expelling a country from Nato
The USA is apparently playing out drastic scenarios internally: According to an internal Pentagon document obtained by the news agency Reuters, options are being examined to expel Spain from Nato.
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- According to an internal Pentagon document, the USA is examining the possibility of expelling Spain from Nato in response to its refusal to release military bases for the Iran war.
- According to Nato regulations, an arbitrary exclusion by the USA would not be possible; the document speaks of symbolic measures.
- European heads of government reacted with skepticism - Poland's Prime Minister Tusk openly questioned the reliability of the USA as an alliance partner.
An internal email from the US Department of Defense brings an unusual idea into play: the partial or complete exclusion of Spain from NATO. According to Reuters, the agency has obtained the document, in which the options are discussed at a high level in the Pentagon. Possible measures against Great Britain are also mentioned in the email.
The core of the dispute lies in the Iran war. Spain had banned the USA from using the two American military bases stationed on Spanish soil for attacks on Iran. Great Britain had also initially imposed this ban, but later withdrew it. In the Pentagon email, the refusal to grant so-called ABO rights - access, stationing and overflight rights - is described as an "absolute prerequisite for NATO".
Symbolic blow without operational consequences
According to Reuters, the document mentions the exclusion of "difficult" countries from important or prestigious NATO positions as a possible option. A complete expulsion of Spain would have little impact on the US military, but a "significant symbolic effect" - according to the assessment in the internal paper. The email leaves open how such a step could be legally implemented. In fact, the USA cannot exclude any NATO member on its own authority.
Pentagon spokesman Kingsley Wilson did not dispute the content of the email. He emphasized that the USA would ensure that allies were "no longer a paper tiger".
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appeared unimpressed at an EU summit in Cyprus, saying that they were not working on the basis of internal emails, but on the basis of official government positions. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, on the other hand, expressed fundamental doubts in the "Financial Times" as to whether the USA would be prepared to honor its NATO commitments to European states in an emergency.
