Trump criticizes NATO over lack of support in Iran war during talks with Mark Rutte

US President Donald Trump again criticized European countries during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said European countries did not support the US and Israel during the war with Iran. He said the United States did not need help but expected support from its allies.

“We didn’t need help on this at all. We demolished them in literally the first week,” Trump said about Iran.

“But it would have been nice if they would have said, ‘We’d like to help.’ We didn’t even need it, but it would have been nice if they said that.”

Trump said he would discuss the issue further with Rutte in a private meeting.

“ We’re going to be discussing what took place, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

Trump has often expressed disappointment with European countries for not doing more to support the United States during the conflict with Iran.

The meeting comes just weeks before NATO’s annual summit, which is scheduled to take place in Ankara, Turkiye, on July 7.

During the meeting, Trump praised Rutte, calling him a “great guy, great leader, great secretary-general”.

“ If anybody else were in that position, we wouldn’t even be meeting today, to be honest with you, because we were let down,” Trump said while talking about his concerns with NATO.

Rutte showed charts highlighting increased defense spending by NATO members and praised the US strikes on Iran.

“I really want to make clear how important it is what you are doing on Iran,” Rutte said, calling Trump the “leader of the free world”.

“This is, first of all, about the nuclear capability Iran was basically getting its hands on—and it would have been a threat to the region. It would’ve been a threat to the whole world. This is a country that is exporting chaos, is exporting terrorism.”

However, the report said there is no evidence that Iran was close to building nuclear weapons when the US and Israel launched attacks on February 28.

The attacks happened while the United States and Iran were holding talks about Iran’s nuclear program. Some experts have criticized the military action, saying it may have violated international law.