Pentagon said to float ways US can punish NATO allies for not helping fight Iran

Internal email considers suspending Spain — though it’s unclear how — and reviewing position on UK’s claim to Falkland Islands; Spain’s Sanchez: ‘We do not work with emails’

An internal Pentagon email outlined options for the United States to punish NATO allies it believes failed to support US operations in the war with Iran, including suspending Spain from the transatlantic alliance and reviewing the US position on Britain’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a US official told Reuters.

The policy options were detailed in a note expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant the United States access, basing and overflight rights – known as ABO – for the Iran war, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the email.

The email stated that ABO is “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

One option in the email envisions suspending “difficult” countries, including Spain, from important or prestigious positions at NATO, the official said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, whose government said it ​would not allow its bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran, brushed off the report.

“Well, we do not work with emails,” Sánchez told reporters at a European Union summit in Cyprus. “We work with official documents and positions taken, in this case, by the government of the United States.”

“The position of the government of Spain is clear: absolute collaboration with the allies, but always within the framework of international legality,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has harshly criticized NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to global shipping ‌following the start of the US-Israeli war with the Islamic Republic on February 28.

He has also declared he is considering withdrawing the US from the powerful alliance, which was founded after World War II and in the early years of the Cold War.

“Wouldn’t you if you were me?” Trump asked Reuters in an April 1 interview, in response to a question about whether the US pulling out of NATO was a possibility.

But the email does not suggest that the United States do so, the official said. It also does not propose closing bases in Europe.

The official declined to say whether the options included a widely expected US drawdown of some forces from Europe, however.

Asked for comment on the email, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson responded: “As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us.

“The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part. We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect,” Wilson said.

White House sees European ‘sense of entitlement’

The US-Israeli war with Iran has raised serious questions about the future of ​the 76-year-old bloc and provoked unprecedented concern that the US might not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, analysts and diplomats say.

Britain, France and others say that joining the US naval ​blockade would amount to entering the war, but that they would be willing to help keep the Strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ended.

But Trump administration officials have stressed that NATO cannot be a one-way street.

They have expressed frustration with Spain, where the United States has two important military bases: Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.

The policy options outlined in the email would be intended to send a strong signal to NATO allies with the goal of “decreasing the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,” the official said, summarizing the email.

The option to suspend Spain from the alliance would have a limited effect on US military operations but a significant symbolic impact, the email argued.

The official did not disclose how the United States might pursue suspending Spain from the alliance, and Reuters could not immediately determine whether there was an existing mechanism at NATO to do so.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European “imperial possessions,” such as the UK’s Falkland Islands near Argentina.

The State Department’s website states that the islands are administered by the United Kingdom but are still claimed by Argentina, whose President Javier Milei is an ally of Trump, as well as of Israel.

Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982 over the islands after Argentina made a failed bid to take them. Some 650 Argentine soldiers and 255 British troops died before Argentina surrendered.

Trump has repeatedly insulted British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling him cowardly because of his unwillingness to join the US war with Iran, ​saying he was “not Winston Churchill” and describing Britain’s aircraft carriers as “toys.”

Britain initially did not grant a request from the US to allow its aircraft to attack Iran from two British bases, but later ​agreed to allow defensive missions aimed at protecting residents of the region, including British citizens, amid Iranian retaliation.

Addressing reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “a lot has been laid bare” by the war with Iran, noting that Iran’s longer-range missiles cannot hit the United States but can reach Europe.

“We get questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations … 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 said.