BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) – NATO has expressed reservations about US President Donald Trump’s demands for an alliance deployment in the strait between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Allies have already taken additional security measures in the Mediterranean, said a spokesman in Brussels. It is also known that individual allies are talking to the USA and others about what they could do beyond this – also in connection with security in the Strait of Hormuz.
The spokesman did not comment on the question of whether NATO committees had already discussed a possible alliance deployment in the strait, which is important for global oil and gas transport. There was also no answer to the question under what conditions such an “out-of-area” operation could be conceivable.
Trump had previously used confrontational words to call on NATO allies to help secure oil shipments in the important Strait of Hormuz. NATO will face a bleak future if the US partners do not help, Trump said in a short interview with the Financial Times. If there is “no reaction or if the reaction is negative, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Trump was quoted as saying.
A NATO operation off the coast of Iran is considered very unlikely, especially because the Strait of Hormuz is not part of the alliance’s territory and the USA cannot therefore invoke the obligation to provide assistance under Article 5. An operation there would therefore be a so-called “out-of-area” operation that all allies would have to agree to./aha/DP/men
