Trump Voices Disappointment in NATO Over Iran Campaign While Rutte Cites European Base Support and Higher Defense Spending

-Israel military campaign against Iran that began on February 28. "We didn’t need help on this at all. We demolished them in literally the first week," Trump said. ’" He added that he would discuss the issue further with Rutte behind closed doors.

Trump praised Rutte as a "great guy, great leader, great secretary-general" but said that if anyone else held the post, the meeting would not be taking place because NATO members had let the United States down. He noted that he believed Rutte would have found a way to assist if asked directly.

Planes to take off during the six weeks of fighting. He called Trump the "leader of the free world" and described Iran as a country that exports chaos and terrorism. Rutte acknowledged isolated cases of disappointment but argued they did not represent the alliance as a whole.

The two leaders are scheduled to meet again at the NATO summit on July 7 in Ankara, Turkiye. U.S. and Iranian delegates negotiated in Switzerland earlier in the week, following a tentative ceasefire memorandum signed on June 17.

Iran had shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war. The conflict killed thousands of Iranian civilians and temporarily displaced millions more.