“Portugal is not, nor will it be, involved in this conflict”. In a short but fairly explanatory sentence today, foreign minister Paulo Rangel has, in effect, answered the oblique threat made to allies by President Trump in his latest plan to ‘reopen the Strait of Hormuz’.
President Trump called on NATO allies over the weekend to ‘police’ the strait – currently under siege by Iran which has vowed to attack any vessels it sees as being involved in the U.S./ Israeli bombing campaign against it.
Talking to reporters about his hope that allies would ‘send warships’ to the strait on his say-so, President Trump said America “will remember” if this does not happen.
In light of the less than enthusiastic response, the U.S. Commander-in-Chief then ‘upped the ante’ on Sunday in an interview with the Financial Times where he said any lack of follow through by allied countries would “be very bad for the future of NATO”.
His stance, however, has not gone down well with European countries; nor with the UK or even other allies.
Stefan Kornelius, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said: “”This war has nothing to do with NATO. It’s not NATO’s war (…) “NATO is a defensive alliance, an alliance for the defence of its territory.”
Kornelius also referred to the fact that “the U.S. and Israel did not consult us before the war”, and that “Washington explicitly stated at the start of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired.”
Allies like Japan have also reacted with caution, suggesting any operations at all in the strait might not pass “legal muster”.
This has always been a conflict that Europe considered ‘illegal’, thus Portugal’s decision to stick with the bloc’s consensus was only to be expected.
Paulo Rangel is in Brussels today for a meeting of heads of diplomacy – and the extremely non-committal message emerging is that “everything that can be done to unblock the Strait of Hormuz and allow free navigation is positive.”
As for the threat about ‘the future of NATO’, the UK’s prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has said that he is “working with allies on a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but it won’t be a NATO mission.”
This far, there has been little reaction from the United States.
Source: LUSA/ NPR/Politico/ BBC
