How Spain and Italy “Finished Off” NATO Amid Removing U.S. From Alliance Is Now “Beyond Reconsideration”
A long cascade of statements and accusations from the White House regarding European NATO partners who do not want to participate in the war against Iran seems to have reached a key point. US President Donald Trump has directly stated that removing America from the Alliance was now “beyond reconsideration” while in general, NATO, according to him, is a “paper tiger” that he was never swayed by.
He stated this directly to The Telegraph, adding that “putin knows that too, by the way.” The US president also stated in an interview with a British publication that Great Britain “don’t even have a navy” and has “aircraft carriers that didn’t work”.
Donald Trump’s words should be perceived in a sequence of systemic statements, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously stated that after the war with Iran “is concluded, we (ed. – the U.S.) are going to have to re-examine that relationship (ed. -with NATO).” It looks like the decision to terminate participation in the Alliance has apparently already been finalized in the White House.
But the “catalyst” for these statements could have been Madrid and Rome. Initially, Spain restricted the use of its Moron and Rota bases, and on Monday, March 30, it blocked its airspace for American aircraft participating in the war against Iran. But in the end, this was the result of a consistent position that was immediately announced by the Spanish government with simultaneous criticism of the United States.
Rome went a little further and simply deployed American fighter jets that were supposed to land at its Sigonella air base in Sicily and were already in the air. According to the Italian Corriere della Sera, this happened last Friday, March 29, when American planes took off from Great Britain, and the Americans did not warn in advance about this flight, informing about it already during the flight.
Despite the fact that Italy has a fairly large number of bases where the U.S. can station its forces, they can be freely used by the Americans only for purposes that are not directly related to hostilities. Otherwise, this requires the consent of Italian parliament, which was not there and it is also impossible to obtain it while the planes are in the air.
Therefore, the issue of permission for the landing of American planes at Sigonella immediately passed from the command of the Italian Air Force to the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, who had already called the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni. In the end, the decision was made to refuse the U.S., which was officially reported to the American ambassador to Italy.
The publication also hints that this situation could well have become an opportunity to refuse the United States, justifying such a refusal with the relevant constitutional restrictions. Although previously the government could simply turn a blind eye to such use of military bases in Italy by the Americans.
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