Europe hardens opposition to Trump’s Iran war demands

BRUSSELS — European countries are stiffening their resistance to U.S. requests for help against Iran despite Donald Trump’s growing fury against Washington’s historic allies.

On Tuesday, Trump said France had closed its airspace to aircraft transporting military supplies to Israel, lampooning Paris for being “VERY UNHELPFUL” and warning: “The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!”

Trump also made it clear that European reluctance to get involved in opening the Strait of Hormuz from the Iranian blockade would be their problem, not America’s.

“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz … You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself,” Trump wrote earlier Tuesday, referencing Iran’s closure of the critical trade chokepoint that’s driving kerosene prices to record highs. “Go get your own oil!”

Yet increasingly, even America’s staunchest allies in Europe — from Italy to Poland — are unwilling to hand Trump a blank check. That underscores how the conflict is deepening a transatlantic divide already under severe strain following the U.S. president’s effort to annex Greenland earlier this year.

An Elysée official said they were “astonished” at the U.S. president’s broadside, arguing France has been consistent since the start of the war that its air bases cannot be used by aircraft involved in the war. “France has not changed its position since day one,” said the official, who, like others for this story, was granted anonymity to speak freely. 

Paris is not alone: Switzerland and Spain imposed similar flight bans earlier this month. Initially an outlier, Madrid immediately took a hard-line stance after the U.S. began its joint aerial bombing campaign with Israel more than four weeks ago and refused to allow America to use Spanish bases.

Madrid will not participate in “a war which was initiated unilaterally and is against international law,” Deputy Prime Minister Carlos Cuerpo said on Monday.

Now, even America’s most loyal allies are showing caution.

Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Tuesday said Warsaw had “no plans” to relocate its Patriot air defense systems to the Middle East. “Poland’s security is an absolute priority,” he wrote on X.

That comes after the U.S. approached NATO countries with two requests for help on air defense, according to a senior European defense official: It asked allies to provide anti-ballistic missile batteries for Ukraine and to help protect NATO installations in the Middle East.

Italy too on Tuesday said it had refused U.S. Iran-bound bombers access to its Sigonella air base in Sicily. Rome argued that was down to a technicality as Washington had not asked for prior authorization — something mandated by the treaties governing U.S. use of Italian bases.

Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto is pictured in Rome on Jan. 9, 2026. | Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

“There is no cooling or tension with the U.S.,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.

Meanwhile, the U.K. is reportedly restricting U.S. personnel from accessing sensitive meetings, the FT reported Tuesday, and is taking longer to respond to requests for American access to British air bases. Trump has personally attacked Prime Minister Keir Starmer for his obvious lack of enthusiasm about getting involved in Iran.

Others like Germany are continuing to allow U.S. access to bases — crucial to the bombing campaign — but there are worries that could end up creating a legal liability for Berlin.

Going it alone

At the heart of that resistance in Europe is the lack of consultation with allies before the U.S. launched the war, confusion about American war aims, and Trump’s demands mixed with his rage and insults at allies.

“The fact that there is no full clarity on U.S. war aims and that there was little to no consultation before the war matter,” said a second senior European defense official. “For countries in the eastern flank, it is also a matter of ensuring their own territorial defense first,” the official added, referring to Russia as the dominant European security concern.

The closures of airspace and broader rejection of Trump’s war has not been formally discussed inside NATO, according to one senior alliance diplomat. But there are “clearly different views on this,” the diplomat said, acknowledging it was a “difficult time for transatlantic relations.”

“The general ‘not our war’ approach has of course also to do with the U.S. attitude toward Europe,” said Niclas Herbst, a German center-right lawmaker on the European Parliament’s Defense Committee. “And Europe is already busy handling Russia’s war against Ukraine … we surely can’t use more military problems.”

Sven Biscop, a political science professor and senior defense analyst at the Egmont Institute, said the tougher stance reflects Europe’s view that the Iran war is a “strategic folly” and the fact the “U.S. strategy is becoming … less and less clear.” 

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth refused to give a deadline for ending the war in Iran, telling reporters that Trump “said four to six weeks, six to eight weeks … it could be any particular number.” 

Yet Hegseth also hinted there would be consequences for allied refusal to aid the war effort.

“As far as NATO, that’s a decision that will be left to the president, but a lot has been laid bare,” he said. “You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”

That was echoed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“If NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, then that’s not a very good arrangement,” he said on Monday. “That’s a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States.”

Clea Caulcutt and Laura Kayali contributed to this report from Paris.