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Marrakech – An internal Pentagon email has outlined a series of punitive options targeting NATO allies Washington believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran. The measures include suspending Spain from the 76-year-old alliance and reassessing American backing for Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
First reported by Reuters on Friday, the email was prepared by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser. A US official speaking on condition of anonymity described the document as expressing deep frustration with allies who refused to grant the United States access, basing, and overflight rights – known as ABO – for the Iran campaign.
Colby wrote that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at senior levels in the Defense Department.
The proposals are designed to send a sharp signal aimed at “decreasing the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” the official told Reuters, summarizing the email’s tone.
Spain emerged as a primary target. The Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez denied US forces permission to use jointly operated military bases – Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base – or Spanish airspace for strikes on Iran. Sánchez condemned the US-Israeli attacks as a breach of international law from the earliest days of the conflict, making him one of the few European leaders to do so publicly.
The email argues that suspending Spain would carry limited operational consequences but deliver significant symbolic impact. One option envisions barring “difficult” countries from prestigious positions within the alliance.
Spain also drew Washington’s ire last October by refusing President Donald Trump’s demand that all NATO members raise defense spending to 5% of GDP. In March, Trump called Spain a “laggard” and floated expulsion. Madrid insists it can meet its capability targets at 2% of GDP, well below the 5% commitment NATO allies agreed to at The Hague summit last year.
Sánchez and European leaders rally behind Spain’s NATO membership
Sánchez brushed off the report at an EU leaders’ summit in Cyprus on Friday. “No worries,” the Spanish prime minister told Politico upon arrival. “We are fulfilling our obligations toward NATO.”
Addressing a broader group of reporters, he declined to engage with the email’s specifics. “We do not work off emails. We work off official documents and government positions, in this case of the United States,” he insisted. He reaffirmed Spain’s stance as one of “absolute cooperation with the allies, but always within the framework of international legality.”
European leaders quickly closed ranks. Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten declared he wanted to be “crystal clear” that Spain was and would remain a full NATO member. A German government spokesperson stated plainly that Spain’s membership was not in question. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stressed that NATO “must remain united.”
NATO officials confirmed the alliance’s founding treaty contains no mechanism for suspending or expelling a member. Any effort to block Spain from key civilian or military positions would require unanimity among all members – a near-impossible threshold given the broad European pushback.
The email also takes aim at Britain. It suggests Washington could reassess its longstanding diplomatic support for the UK’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina has claimed for decades. The two countries fought a brief war over the islands in 1982, leaving more than 900 dead before Argentina surrendered.
Argentine President Javier Milei, a close Trump ally, expressed optimism about the development. “We are doing everything humanly possible so that the Argentine Malvinas return to the hands of Argentina,” Milei declared in a radio interview posted on his X account Friday.
A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded firmly that sovereignty rests with the UK and that the islanders’ right to self-determination “is paramount.”
Trump has repeatedly belittled Starmer, calling him cowardly and “No Winston Churchill” for his reluctance to join the war. Britain initially refused a US request to launch attacks from its bases but later permitted defensive missions aimed at protecting regional residents amid Iranian retaliation.
Trump’s frustration with NATO deepens over the Iran conflict
The leaked email reflects a broader erosion in transatlantic relations since the war began on February 28. Trump has condemned allies for refusing to send navies to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran blockaded to disrupt Western shipping. The United States subsequently imposed its own counter-blockade, leaving the critical waterway fully closed. Diplomatic efforts led by Pakistan and Turkey remain stalled.
Trump has labeled NATO a “paper tiger” and told Reuters in an April 1 interview that he was considering withdrawing from the alliance. Pentagon spokesman Kingsley Wilson did not directly address the email’s contents but confirmed the administration’s posture. “Despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us,” Wilson stated.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reinforced the message earlier this month, noting that Iran’s longer-range missiles can reach Europe but not the United States. “You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,” Hegseth told reporters at the Pentagon.
Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned this week that the alliance’s survival is no longer guaranteed within the next decade. He pushed back on the notion that Europe broadly abandoned the United States, arguing most allies provided logistical support behind the scenes.
Former US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith cautioned that pursuing punitive measures “could very well issue another devastating blow to the relationship and cast a long, dark shadow over the upcoming NATO summit in July.”
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk openly questioned whether Washington would honor Article 5 – NATO’s mutual defense clause – if a member were attacked. Dutch military intelligence assessed this week that Russia could be ready to initiate a regional conflict against NATO within a year after the Ukraine war ends.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed bewilderment at Washington’s criticism, noting that Britain and France were already leading efforts to secure the strait once hostilities end. “I don’t understand if we are actually replying to their requests,” Kallas remarked at the Cyprus summit.
The email notably did not propose withdrawing from NATO or closing US bases in Europe. But its circulation at senior Pentagon levels indicated a deepening rift between Washington and its oldest allies. And this alone, experts have warned, could permanently reshape the Western security architecture built after World War II.
