President Donald Trump praised NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte after Rutte said he supported the U.S.’ mission in Iran in an appearance on Newsmax, Wednesday.
"Thank you to our great NATO Secretary General! President DJT," Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday night, linking to a Newsmax.com story about Rutte’s appearance on “The Record With Greta Van Susteren.”
Rutte said there is "widespread support" among alliance members for Trump's campaign targeting Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities, even as some European leaders have voiced public criticism of the operation.
"NATO is not involved," Rutte said. "But obviously allies are basically, on a massive scale, supportive of what the president is doing and are also enabling what the U.S. is doing now in the region, taking out this nuclear capability of Iran and, of course, the missile capability."
Despite criticism from some leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Rutte said NATO countries are providing "key enabling assistance" to the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.
He also emphasized that NATO forces remain prepared to defend alliance territory as tensions escalate in the region.
"What we are doing at the moment as NATO is making sure that we, in a 360-degree way, defend every inch of NATO territory," Rutte said.
He pointed to a recent incident involving a missile threat toward Turkey, a NATO member and part of the alliance's collective defense system.
"You saw that this morning when news came in of a missile which was heading for Turkey and potentially impacting on U.S. interests in Turkey, taken out by NATO anti-missile systems," he said. "So, this is working. We are vigilant."
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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