Donald Trump has lashed out at Nato again, and claimed the alliance has done “absolutely nothing” to assist with his war with Iran.
The US president claimed he did not require Nato’s support but he would “never forget” its perceived lack of action.
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote: “Nato nations have done absolutely nothing to help with the lunatic nation, now militarily decimated, of Iran.
“The U.S.A. needs nothing from Nato, but ‘never forget’ this very important point in time!.”
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte avoided criticising the president when asked about the comments during a press conference in Brussels.
“What I have been seeing is some frustration with him about the Europeans needing to take time to react to his requests when it comes to this question of making sure that sea lanes are open,” he said. Rutte added that he had told Trump there had been “good reasons" for the time it took.
In a White House cabinet meeting later on Thursday, Trump doubled down on his criticism, describing his war as a “test for Nato” as he said the US would remember how its allies responded.
“Remember my statement”, he added. “They have an expression, a great expression: ‘Never forget’. You can never forget.”
The latest attacks came as Trump said Tehran was “begging to make a deal” to end the war. The president claimed the US had been “absolutely obliterating them” over the near four weeks of conflict, saying it had “wiped out” its air force and navy.
Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed the US has presented a 15-point "action list" to Iran, delivered through Pakistan as a framework for a possible peace deal, which includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the key shipping lane out of the Middle East crucial for the globe’s oil supply.
Witkoff indicated there's a "strong possibility" an agreement can be reached but a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran had viewed the proposal as "one-sided and unfair".
At the start of a Thursday cabinet meeting, Trump said he wanted to “set the record straight” that he isn't the one pushing for a deal.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly, but they're afraid to say it because they figure they'll be killed by their own people,” Trump said.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had said in an interview on state TV, however, that his government has not engaged in talks to end the war, “and we do not plan on any negotiations”.
Araghchi said the US had tried to send messages to Iran through other nations, “but that is not a conversation nor a negotiation”.
Also during the cabinet meeting, Trump suggested that a deal might not ultimately come together.
“I don't know if we'll be able to do that,” he said of the prospects for a deal. “I don’t know if we're willing to do that”.
Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's top diplomat, said that indirect talks between the United States and Iran were ongoing.
Israel said on Thursday it had killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy, the key official overseeing the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Adm. Brad Coope, US commander of Central Command, said the killing of Tangsiri “makes the region safer”.
Israel also said it carried out a wave of attacks early on Thursday targeting Iranian infrastructure, and air defences were heard in Tehran, while heavy strikes were also reported around Isfahan, a city some 205 miles south of the Iranian capital.
Since the war began, more than 1,500 people have been killed in Iran, its health ministry says.
Twenty people have been killed in Israel; two Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Lebanon. At least 13 US military members have been killed. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have also died.
Nearly 1,100 people have died in Lebanon, authorities said. In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militant groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have been killed.
