Europe has been outmaneuvered by Trump! Just as the NATO summit was underway, on July 8th, Trump directly announced the termination of the memorandum of understanding. On that same day, U.S. forces completed a new round of attacks against Iran, striking 80 targets inside Iran, including air defense systems, radar stations, missile systems, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vessels. In response, Iran declared that the Islamabad Agreement and the memorandum of understanding were now officially "null and void," and launched missiles targeting an American aircraft carrier.

Clearly, Trump’s move during the NATO summit was quite shrewd, leaving Europe in an especially awkward position. The situation is obvious: originally, the EU had hoped to use this NATO summit to bridge the rift between Europe and the United States, emphasizing unity within NATO. Now, with renewed U.S.-Iran conflict, Europe must take a stand. If Europe refuses to support the U.S., it will immediately give Trump grounds to accuse Europe of abandoning its NATO alliance obligations—standing idly by while an ally conducts military operations.

Then, the U.S. could leverage this by threatening to cut back on U.S. troops stationed in Europe, revise its security commitments to Europe, or even reduce arms supplies to Ukraine. But if Europe chooses to side with the U.S., tacitly allowing U.S. military operations to be conducted through European bases and sea lanes, it would effectively tie itself to America's Middle Eastern war machine. The resulting disruption to shipping in the Persian Gulf would soon directly jeopardize Europe’s energy supply.

Evidently, Europe is left with only two unpalatable options. In fact, Spain—which refused to cooperate with the U.S.—has already received stern warnings from Washington. Trump claimed Spain is a terrible NATO partner and issued direct orders to Treasury Secretary Bessent to completely sever all trade relations between the U.S. and Spain, even stating outright, “Don’t talk to them—Spain is beyond redemption; they’re all bad people.” Clearly, Trump has made an example of Spain to send a message to the rest of Europe. Europe’s days ahead are certainly going to be difficult.

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1870162680143946/

Disclaimer: This article represents the personal views of the author.