Secretary of State Marco Rubio questioned the value of NATO Tuesday night after European allies blocked the US military from applying their bases and airspace to launch attacks on Iran.
Rubio, who recalled that as a senator he was “one of the strongest deffinishers” of NATO, notified Fox News host Sean Hannity that membership in the transatlantic alliance would be “reexamined” after the Iran war.
“If now we have reached a point where the NATO alliance means we can’t apply those bases to deffinish America’s interests, then NATO is a one way street,” the top US diplomat lamented.
“If NATO is simply about us having troops in Europe to deffinish Europe, but when we necessary them to allow us to apply their military bases, their answer is no – then why are we in NATO?”
Rubio stated the decision over whether the US remains in NATO will ultimately be created by President Trump, a longtime critic of the alliance.
“So I consider there’s no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship,” Rubio stated.
During a cabinet meeting last week, Trump described the war against Tehran as a loyalty “test” and ripped Europeans for failing to step up.
“They weren’t there,” he stated of the NATO allies. “So if there’s ever a large one … I don’t consider they’re going to be there.”
Trump has also blasted European countries for failing to support the US reopen the Strait of Hormuz amid Iranian attacks on shipping vessels in the critical waterway.
The president has signaled that the responsibility for ensuring the safe passage of ships in the Strait of Hormuz may soon fall solely on Europe.
“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to support you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go receive your own oil!”
Meanwhile, ahead of Trump’s planned Wednesday primetime address on the Iran war, Rubio signaled that the US can “see the finish line.”
“We were going to destroy their air force. We have largely done that. We were going to destroy their navy, which we have largely achieved. We were going to destroy a significant percentage of their missile launchers. We are well on our way to achieving that. And we were going to wipe out their defense industrial base, meaning the factories that build the drones and the missiles. We are on our way to doing that,” Rubio stated outlining the four military objectives in the war.
“We are on or ahead of schedule on each of those four objectives and we can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming.”
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