Will have to reexamine NATO alliance

United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday that they would need to “reexamine” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance following the conclusion of the war in Iran.

Key quotes

“Why do we have billions and billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars, over the years, trillions of dollars, and all these American forces stationed in the region… if in our time of need we’re not going to be allowed to use those bases?”

“I do think, unfortunately, we are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose.”

“Or has it now become a one-way street where America is simply in a position to defend Europe, but when we need the help of our allies, they’re going to deny us basing rights and they’re going to deny us overflight. I think these are very legitimate questions that we need to be asking.”

“I hear these news reports, and it’s very frustrating, that we don’t know what the objectives are.”

“The objectives are very clear… and we’re going to achieve all four of them. We’re going to destroy their air force. We already have done it. We’re going to destroy their navy. We’ve largely done that. We’re going to destroy their factories that make these missiles and these drones… We are going to severely degrade their missile launchers so that they can’t fire these multiple salvos…”

On the Strait of Hormuz issue, “for all these countries that love to talk about international law, it is a violation of international maritime law to impede the free flow of travel in international waters…”

“We depend very little on the strait. So if, in fact, Iran decides to set up a toll, if, in fact, Iran decides that they’re going to illegally control the strait of Hormuz or decide they’re going to try to do that, look, I imagine that’ll be the president’s call – whether he wants to help. But this is a problem for the world. It is countries around the world [that] should be stepping up and dealing with that and saying that’s intolerable – and that’s what we’ve encouraged them to do.”