Spain is once again at the heart of tensions within NATO, as reported by the Madrid-based site El Confidencial. In an internal email to the Pentagon, disclosed on April 24 by the news agency Reuters, “various options for retaliation” are being considered by the US defense to punish NATO members who do not support the United States in its war against Iran, the Spanish media unfolds.
Among these options is the possibility of suspending Spain’s participation in the organization, a state that has been a member since 1982. El Confidencial wonders if the United States can actually expel Spain from NATO, before ending all suspense with a resounding “no.”
The Washington Treaty, the founding act of the Alliance which came into effect in August 1949, “provides for the possibility for a country to voluntarily leave the organization, but not to be excluded against its will,” clarifies El País, Spain’s most widely read generalist newspaper. “In 75 years of history,” no state has ever been expelled from NATO, El Confidencial completes.
“Trump ne sait pas comment s’y prendre”
The possibility of excluding Turkey, “due to its military intervention in Syria,” was briefly discussed but “never materialized,” as remembered
