NATO Allies Reject US Plea to Secure Strait of Hormuz
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- NATO leaders convened in Ankara, Turkiye for a summit ostensibly focused on increasing defense investment and long-term military support for Ukraine, but the US-Israel war on Iran overshadowed the gathering.
- Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz for months, making freedom of navigation through the vital waterway one of the most significant issues before the alliance.
- The United States called on European allies to help secure the strait before the summit convened, and they refused outright — with some arguing the conflict has nothing to do with the NATO bloc.
- Several European allies framed the Iran war as outside NATO's mandate, effectively rejecting the US request before formal talks began and exposing a transatlantic divide the Ankara gathering was forced to confront.
Why it matters: The US asked NATO allies to help secure a waterway central to its Iran war and was flatly refused, with allies dismissing the conflict as outside the alliance's mission. The public split at a summit nominally about Ukraine defense exposes how NATO cannot agree on whether collective defense extends beyond its traditional Euro-Atlantic theater.
