Spain has once again found itself “at the heart of tensions within NATO,” according to the Madrid-based site El Confidencial. An internal email at the Pentagon, disclosed on April 24 by the press agency Reuters, reveals that “various retaliatory options” are being considered by the U.S. defense to punish NATO member countries that do not support the United States in its war against Iran, the Spanish media elaborates.
Among these options is the possibility of suspending Spain’s participation in the organization. A member since 1982, El Confidencial questions whether the United States can actually expel Spain from NATO, before putting an end to any suspense: “The answer is a categorical ‘no.'”
The Washington Treaty, the founding act of the Alliance that came into effect in August 1949, “provides for the possibility for a country to voluntarily leave the organization, but not to be expelled against its will,” specifies El País, Spain’s most widely read newspaper. “In 75 years of history,” no country has ever been expelled from NATO, El Confidencial concludes.
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The possibility of excluding Turkey, “due to its military intervention in Syria,” was briefly considered, but “never materialized,” the article recalls.
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