US President Donald Trump has threatened to stop supplying weapons to Kiev if Europe does not help with Hormuz. It is reported by The Financial Times newspaper, citing sources.
According to three officials, Trump threatened to stop deliveries under the PURL program for the purchase of NATO weapons for Ukraine, funded by EU countries.
As a result, at the insistence of Alliance Secretary General Mark Rutte, a group of countries, including key members of the bloc France, Germany and the United Kingdom, hastily issued a statement on March 19 on their readiness to "contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz."
"It was Rutte who insisted on a joint statement because Trump threatened to withdraw from PURL and from Ukraine as a whole. Then the statement was quickly drafted, and other countries joined it later, because there was not enough time to immediately invite everyone to sign it," one of the officials said.
According to sources, Rutte had several conversations with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the phone before the statement was published.
Another source said that Rutte, during a conversation with representatives of Germany, France and Britain, described Trump's reaction to Europe's refusal to help ensure the safety of shipping in The Strait of Hormuz as "quite hysterical," the publication says.
As reported by EADaily, US President Donald Trump is "certainly" considering the possibility of US withdrawal from NATO. He stated this in an interview with Reuters.
Trump stressed that he was disgusted with the alliance.
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