The Republican president has threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance and denounced Washington’s European allies in recent weeks

International News via Reuters:

President Donald Trump welcomes NATO chief Mark Rutte to the White House on Wednesday, as the war with Iran has pushed U.S. relations with other members of the military alliance to a crisis point.

The Republican president has threatened to withdraw from the 32-member transatlantic alliance and denounced Washington’s European allies in recent weeks for what he said was inadequate support for the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran. Trump said on Tuesday the attacks would be paused after the two sides agreed to a two-week ceasefire.

Trump has called for countries that depend on oil from the Gulf region to break Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, but European countries are unlikely to join mine-clearing or other missions to free up navigation as long as hostilities continue, according to two European diplomats.

Iran has vowed to obstruct the vital chokepoint with mines until the war ends. 

A ‘DANGEROUS POINT’ FOR THE ALLIANCE

Rutte, known in Europe as a “Trump whisperer,” has cultivated a warm relationship with Trump despite the tensions and referred to him last year as a “daddy” handling a schoolyard brawl between Israel and Iran. Another European diplomat described Rutte’s approach to Trump as deferential but effective.

Conflict over Iran has worsened transatlantic anxieties over Ukraine, Greenland and military spending, although senior U.S. officials have privately reassured European governments that the administration remains committed to NATO, according to one of the two European officials, who was involved in such conversations.

“This is a dangerous point for the transatlantic alliance,” said Oana Lungescu, a former NATO spokesperson now at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank.

When the two men meet, Rutte is likely to express a shared interest in restoring normal maritime trade after hostilities caused energy prices to spike globally, the first two diplomats said. He is also expected to attempt to sway the U.S. leader away from public criticism of the alliance, while touting steps European countries are taking to increase defense spending.

A NATO official said Rutte would seek to increase defense-industry cooperation and to discuss the wars in Iran and Ukraine. 

But it is unclear whether NATO, a defensive alliance focused on North America and Europe, would play an extensive role in the Middle East. Rutte has not been tasked by European leaders with committing to an operation in the Strait of Hormuz when he meets with Trump, according to one of the diplomats.

“I expect he will keep up the dialogue on Ukraine and burden-shifting within NATO,” another senior European diplomat said, adding that the former Dutch politician has said alliance members “should lean into opening Hormuz” after a ceasefire. 

Trump’s Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders are often a spectacle, with both praise and grievances aired publicly before television cameras. The White House has not said whether Trump and Rutte’s meeting would be open to the press.

TRUMP CALLS NATO A ‘PAPER TIGER’ 

NATO, which includes European countries, the U.S. and Canada, was formed in 1949 to counter the risk of Soviet attack and has been the cornerstone of the West’s security ever since.

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly called NATO a “paper tiger” that is unhelpful in times of need. Asked by a Reuters reporter earlier this month about withdrawing from NATO, Trump said: “Wouldn’t you if you were me?”

His focus on the Middle East has also further threatened to divert U.S. weapons from Ukraine, whose defense is a major priority for most of NATO’s European members. Trump’s criticism of Ukraine, engagement with Russia and threats to take over Greenland from NATO member Denmark have alarmed those allies.

“He has been disappointed by NATO and other allies’ unwillingness to be helpful throughout Operation Epic Fury, even though his effort to destroy the threat posed by Iran is to their benefit,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. “As he said, the United States will remember.”

Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington and Lili Bayer in Brussels; Additional reporting by John Irish and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Edmund Klamann

Trump announced the agreement late on Tuesday, just two hours before a deadline he had set for Iran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its “whole civilisation”

International News via Reuters:

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, potentially suspending a six-week-old war that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and caused unprecedented disruption to the world’s energy supplies.

Trump announced the agreement late on Tuesday, just two hours before a deadline he had set for Iran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its “whole civilisation”.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday. The deal is subject to Iran’s agreement to pause its blockade of oil and gas passing through the strait, Trump said.

The waterway typically handles about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. News of the deal, and the prospect that the worst disruption to global energy markets in history could finally come to a close, caused a sharp fall in oil prices and a surge in share markets around the world. 

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said in a statement Tehran would cease counter-attacks and provide safe passage through the waterway – if attacks against it stopped.

IRAN’S RULING ESTABLISHMENT SURVIVES 

Crowds took to the streets of Iran overnight to celebrate, waving Iranian flags and burning flags of the United States and Israel. But there was also wariness that a deal would not hold.

“Israel will not allow diplomacy to work and Trump might change his view tomorrow. But at least we can sleep tonight without strikes,” Alireza, 29, a government employee in Tehran, told Reuters by phone.

The ceasefire suspends the war launched on February 28 by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had said at the time that they sought to prevent Iran from projecting force beyond its borders, end its nuclear programme and create conditions for Iranians to topple their rulers.

Trump told the French news agency AFP that the ceasefire represented a “total and complete victory” and said on Truth Social that the U.S. had achieved its military objectives.

But the war has yet to deprive Iran either of its stockpile of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium or its ability to hit its neighbours with missiles and drones. The clerical leadership, which faced a mass uprising months ago, withstood the superpower onslaught with no sign of domestic opposition.

And Tehran’s proven ability to cut off Gulf energy supplies, despite the massive U.S. military presence built across the region over decades, could reshape the power dynamics of the Gulf for generations.

“The enemy, in its unjust, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation, has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat,” Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.

Netanyahu’s office said Israel supported the decision to suspend strikes on Iran for two weeks. But the agreement is likely to be seen as a blow for the Israeli leader, who had repeatedly said he wanted Iran’s rulers to fall.

“There has never been such a diplomatic disaster in all our history,” opposition politician Yair Lapid said. “It will take us years to repair the diplomatic and strategic damage that Netanyahu caused due to arrogance, negligence and lack of strategic planning.”

Yair Golan, a former military deputy chief of staff who plans to run in the next election, wrote on X that the outcome was a “complete failure that endangered Israel’s security”.

“The nuclear program was not destroyed. The ballistic threat remains. The regime is still intact and is even emerging from this war stronger,” he said.

ISRAEL’S ATTACKS ON LEBANON CONTINUE

Reviving shipping from the Gulf could take time: shipping companies will need assurances of safety before sailing.

Container shipper Maersk said it was not yet making changes: “Any decision to transit the Strait of Hormuz will be based on continuous risk assessments, close monitoring of the security situation, and available guidance from relevant authorities and partners.”

The agreement did not halt Israel’s parallel campaign in Lebanon, which it invaded in March in pursuit of the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia. Netanyahu’s office said the ceasefire did not apply to Lebanon, apparently contradicting Sharif.

The Lebanese state news agency NNA reported continued Israeli strikes across southern Lebanon, including artillery shelling and a dawn air strike on a building near a hospital that killed four people. Israel’s military issued repeated urgent warnings to residents that it planned to attack the city of Tyre in southern Lebanon.

A senior Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon had received no information on its inclusion in the ceasefire, and had not been involved in talks.

The U.S.-Iranian truce leaves the main demands of the warring sides unresolved.

An Israeli official said senior Trump administration officials had assured Israel that they would firmly insist, in talks over the next two weeks, on previous conditions such as the removal of Iran’s nuclear material, a halt to enrichment and the elimination of ballistic missiles.

But Iran could also make further demands. It has previously demanded the lifting of all sanctions, compensation for damage, guarantees that the war will not resume and a new system that would allow it to collect payment from ships that use the Strait of Hormuz.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan, a newspaper closely associated with late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, derided the ceasefire in an editorial, saying “compromise and negotiation are a gift to the enemy”.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus worldwide; Writing by David Dolan and Peter Graff; Editing by Kevin Liffey