U.S. President Donald Trump threatened European allies unwilling to assist the U.S. in the war with Iran in mid-March that he would stop arms sales to Ukraine, the British newspaper Financial Times reports, citing sources, as LETA refers to BBC.
Trump demanded that NATO allies send ships and help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, but they responded that this was impossible and that it was "not their war," the publication reports.
According to three officials who spoke to the newspaper, in response, Trump threatened to suspend the sale of American weapons that Europeans are purchasing for Ukraine under the "Priority Needs List for Ukraine" (PURL) program.
As a result, the newspaper notes, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, at the initiative of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, issued a joint statement on March 19, expressing their readiness to "contribute to appropriate measures to ensure safe navigation in the strait."
These three countries did not even have time to gather signatures from other NATO members, who joined the statement later.
Sources told the publication that Rutte had been conducting phone conversations with Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for two days.
During a conversation with the leaders of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, Rutte stated that Trump had become "hysterical" as the Europeans refused to help unblock the Strait of Hormuz, sources told the Financial Times.
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