{"id":440594,"date":"2026-05-09T16:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440594\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T16:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T16:48:13","slug":"us-allies-anticipate-trump-will-withdraw-more-forces-from-europe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/440594\/","title":{"rendered":"US allies anticipate Trump will withdraw more forces from Europe \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main PointsKey ReadsIsrael\u2019s artists face isolation<\/a> at Venice Biennale and prepare for booing at EurovisionAer Lingus chief executive says it has enough fuel<\/a> for summer flightsGovernments backing US risk closure of Strait of Hormuz \u2018forever\u2019<\/p>\n

Ebrahim Azizi head of the national security commission of the Iranian parliament has warned other governments that siding with the US-backed resolution to end the war \u201cwill bring severe consequences\u201d.<\/p>\n

Azizi, specifically mentioning microstates such as Bahrain, said countries that back the resolution risk closing the Strait of Hormuz on themselves \u201cforever\u201d.<\/p>\n

We warn governments, including microstates like Bahrain, that siding with the U.S.-backed resolution will bring severe consequences.
The Strait of Hormuz is a vital lifeline; do not risk closing it on yourselves FOREVER.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u0627\u0628\u0631\u0627\u0647\u06cc\u0645 \u0639\u0632\u06cc\u0632\u06cc (@Ebrahimazizi33) May 9, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Two Gaza flotilla activists to be deported from Israel<\/p>\n

Two activists arrested last month when Israeli forces intercepted the Gaza-bound flotilla they were travelling on \u200bare expected to be deported in the coming days after being released from security detention on Saturday, their lawyers said.<\/p>\n

Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were detained by Israeli \u200bauthorities on April 29th and brought to Israel.<\/p>\n

The activists were part of a second Global Sumud Flotilla launched \u2060from Spain on April 12th to try to break Israel\u2019s blockade of Gaza \u200cby \u200cdelivering \u200baid to the enclave.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s foreign ministry said Abu Keshek was suspected of affiliation with a terrorist organisation and Avila was suspected \u2060of illegal activity. Both denied \u200bthe allegations.<\/p>\n

The governments of Spain and Brazil said Abu Keshek\u2019s and Avila\u2019s detention \u200cwas unlawful, but Israel\u2019s Ashkelon Magistrate\u2019s Court \u200bremanded them in custody until May 10th.<\/p>\n

Human rights group Adalah, which has assisted \u2060in their legal defence and also \u2060said the detention \u200bwas unlawful, said that Abu Keshek and Avila were informed that they will be released from detention on Saturday and handed over to immigration authorities\u2019 custody until their deportation. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon recap<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Iranian man rides his moped past a banner depicting a cartoon of US president Donald Trump which reads in Tehran on Saturday. Photograph: Atta Kenare\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

Iran: Tehran accused the US of carrying out \u201ca reckless military adventure\u201d and undermining efforts to end the war following Friday\u2019s clashes between the two nations in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

US-Israel: Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted he had the \u201cfull co-ordination\u201d of US president Donald Trump. This follows weeks of reports in the Israeli media that the country was no longer being consulted by the US over the Iran conflict.<\/p>\n

Proposals: Iran is still weighing up its response to the latest US proposals to end the war. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said they had originally expected a response on Friday.<\/p>\n

Troops: US allies in Europe anticipate that Trump will withdraw more forces from the Continent.<\/p>\n

Oil: A large slick of oil continued to spread in Gulf waters off the coast of Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s primary crude oil export terminal. The cause of the spill remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 2 hours ago<\/p>\n

Europe wants to keep Nato functioning, says Merz<\/p>\n

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Saturday Europe wanted to work to keep the Nato alliance functioning, despite differences with the United \u200bStates that the Iran war has exposed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really \u2060willing to keep this alliance alive for the future,\u201d Merz said at a press conference with \u200cSwedish \u200cprime minister \u200bUlf Kristersson. He also said Sweden and Finland had strengthened the European pillar of the alliance. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that there are some differences. We know that \u2060we are seeing challenges, all of us, but \u200bour final goal is to bring this conflict to \u200ban end and to guarantee that Iran is not able to produce nuclear weapons,\u201d Merz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this goal \u200cis a common goal between America and \u200bEurope.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Merz said last month Iran was \u201chumiliating\u201d the US, Trump hit back \u2060by ordering 5,000 US troops to be \u2060withdrawn and cancelled the planned \u200bdeployment of long-range Tomahawk missiles.<\/p>\n

Merz said the main issue was not troop numbers but \u201cunity of purpose\u201d and that it was in the US interest to have a strong European component of Nato.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are remaining interested and highly interested in having the American army and the American military support on our side,\u201d he said. \u201cSo this is something we are having in common and we are trying to achieve that currently.\u201d \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 3 hours ago<\/p>\n

UK will deploy one of its warships to the Middle East<\/p>\n

The UK will deploy one of its warships to the Middle East as part of planning for a European-led mission to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz once there\u2019s a stable ceasefire.<\/p>\n

HMS Dragon, a Type-45 warship capable of destroying guided missiles, is likely to form part of the UK\u2019s offer for the defensive naval mission, designed to reassure commercial ships attempting to pass through the waterway. Such a mission will only begin once sustained ceasefire or peace deal is agreed to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pre-positioning of HMS Dragon is part of prudent planning that will ensure that the UK is ready, as part of a multinational coalition jointly led by the UK and France, to secure the Strait, when conditions allow,\u201d a spokesperson for the UK ministry of defence said.<\/p>\n

The move comes as Iran weighs a new proposal from the US to end the war, which has been going on for 10 weeks. The ship has just completed weapons system testing off the coast of Crete and was deployed to help defend Cyprus at the start of the conflict.<\/p>\n

More than 40 nations are participating in planning for the UK-France military mission, with another meeting due next week. <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 4 hours ago<\/p>\n

US allies anticipate Trump will withdraw more forces from Europe<\/p>\n

US allies in Europe anticipate that Trump will withdraw more forces from the Continent after he announced he would pull 5,000 troops out of Germany, people familiar with the matter have told Bloomberg. <\/p>\n

Top diplomats from Nato allies forecast that Trump will announce more drawdowns, possibly including from Italy, and scrap a plan dating back to Joe Biden\u2019s presidency to station long-range missiles in Germany, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.<\/p>\n

Other scenarios include the US ending participation in some military exercises and diverting forces from countries it\u2019s unhappy with to others that are seen as more supportive of the president, the people said. That\u2019s an idea that dates back to Trump\u2019s first term, when he considered sending more troops to Poland.<\/p>\n

The people said their predictions about the withdrawals were based on Trump\u2019s public comments and conversations that alliance officials have had with US counterparts over their future plans for Nato.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon declined to comment, while the White House referred to comments made by US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf one of the main reasons why the US is in Nato is the ability to have forces deployed in Europe that we could project to other contingencies, and now that\u2019s no longer the case at least when it comes to some Nato members, that\u2019s a problem \u2013 and it has to be examined,\u201d Rubio told reporters in Italy.<\/p>\n

The moves would serve as a further signal of Trump\u2019s unhappiness with some Nato allies such as Germany and Spain over what he\u2019s seen as insufficient help for the US and Israeli war against Iran. Asked in late April whether he would consider removing troops from Italy or Spain, Trump responded, \u201cWell, why shouldn\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cItaly has not been of any help to us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The alliance hasn\u2019t yet been told which unit will be pulled out of Germany but officials believe the US is looking at options to promptly implement the withdrawal, one of the people said.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump speaks to members of the media prior to a Marine One departure from the South Lawn of the White House on Friday. Photograph: Alex Wong\/Getty <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 6 hours ago<\/p>\n

Bahrain\u2019s interior ministry said \u200bon Saturday \u200bit \u2060had arrested \u200c41 \u200cpeople \u200bit \u2060said \u200bwere \u200blinked to \u200cIran\u2019s Revolutionary \u200bGuards, the \u2060state \u2060news \u200bagency reported. <\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 7 hours ago<\/p>\n

The US and Iran appeared no closer on Saturday to finding an end to \u200ctheir war after the two sides traded fire in the Gulf amid a tenuous ceasefire, while a US intelligence analysis concluded Tehran could withstand a naval blockade for months.<\/p>\n

Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups \u200bin fighting in and around the Strait of Hormuz since a ceasefire began a month ago, and the United Arab Emirates came under renewed attack on Friday.<\/p>\n

Washington has been awaiting Tehran\u2019s response to a US proposal that would formally end the war before talks on more contentious issues, including Iran\u2019s nuclear programme. <\/p>\n

Speaking in Rome on Friday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the US was expecting a response that \u200bday, although an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said Tehran was still weighing its response.<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 9 hours ago<\/p>\n

Large oil slick spreads in the Gulf<\/p>\n

A large oil slick is spreading in the Gulf off Kharg Island, Iran\u2019s primary crude oil export terminal, satellite images show, raising concerns about the state of Iranian oil infrastructure straining under a US-imposed naval blockade.<\/p>\n

The apparent spill, located off the western coast of the island, had spread over an area of more than 52sq km, according to an estimate by Orbital EOS, a global oil spill monitoring service. More than 3,000 barrels of oil may have been released, Orbital EOS said.<\/p>\n

The cause of the spill was unclear. Iranian oil and gas infrastructure has been under strain because of the US blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway into the Gulf through which 20 to 25 per cent of the world\u2019s seaborne oil normally passes.<\/p>\n

The Iranian government has also restricted ship traffic through the strait as talks on reopening the passage stall. Vessels and facilities have sustained damage in US and Israeli attacks, making them vulnerable to spills.<\/p>\n

That has left tankers stranded, constraining exports and causing Iran to rapidly run out of places to store its oil, raising concerns of possible leaks or other mishaps at the Kharg Island hub. \u2013 The New York Times<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 9 hours ago<\/p>\n

Tensions emerge in Netanyahu-Trump alliance<\/p>\n

Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu<\/a> interrupted an uncharacteristically long silence over the Iran conflict this week with a video commentary insisting he had \u201cfull co-ordination\u201d with Donald Trump<\/a>, with whom he spoke \u201calmost daily\u201d.<\/p>\n

The insistence that all was rosy in the US-Israeli relationship followed weeks of reports in the domestic press that Israel was no longer being consulted over the Iran conflict, and even less over Pakistani-brokered peace talks. <\/p>\n

Such is the scepticism over Netanyahu\u2019s trustworthiness among the general public and independent press that the immediate reaction among observers to his video statement was speculation that the reality could be even worse than they had imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is doing so much talking about how great the relationship is that it makes me rather concerned about how much tension there is,\u201d said Dahlia Scheindlin, an American-Israeli political consultant and pollster. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised, as the war is clearly going very poorly from all perspectives related to the original goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US president and the Israeli prime minister have long presented mirror images of each other. They have both pioneered populist methods to dominate domestic politics, cutting away at the constitutional underpinning of the very systems that brought them to power, with little regard for past norms or constraints.<\/p>\n

Since February 28th, when they brought the Gulf to a standstill with a devastating US-Israeli assault on Iran, they have bound their fate together so tightly that it will be very hard for either of them to unstick themselves from its legacy.<\/p>\n

According to multiple reports, US intelligence and military officials stressed the risk that Iran could attack US allies in the Gulf and close the strait of Hormuz. But Netanyahu \u2013 and US administration hawks including the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth \u2013 prevailed, arguing that Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards were overrated and would not have the strength to hit back.<\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump and Netanyahu outside Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in December 2025. Photograph: Tierney L Cross\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

They were proved wrong on every count. The Iranian people did not rise up, the regime did not fall, the Kurds did not attack from the northwest and the Revolutionary Guards were able to inflict withering damage on US bases and Gulf monarchies, close the Hormuz strait and trigger a global economic crisis.<\/p>\n

The president stopped mentioning Israel and Netanyahu in his relentlessly upbeat public statements about the war. When US negotiators started talking to their Iranian counterparts and Pakistani mediators in the run-up to a ceasefire announcement on April 8th, Israel was left out of the loop. Israeli officials complained to the press that they had to use their intelligence assets to try to find out what was going on.<\/p>\n

There are varying accounts of what is on the table in the peace talks, but there has been no mention of Iran\u2019s missile arsenal or its use of regional proxies, both of which are Israeli priorities.<\/p>\n

When Trump did mention Netanyahu, it was mostly to tell him off. After Israel bombed Iran\u2019s South Pars gasfield, for example, Trump said he had told Netanyahu \u201cnot to do that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn occasion, he\u2019ll do something, and if I don\u2019t like it … we\u2019re not doing that any more,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n

When the ceasefire was agreed, Trump initially sided with Netanyahu\u2019s interpretation that Lebanon was excluded and then, with the truce in jeopardy, swiftly reversed himself and made Israel follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael will not be bombing Lebanon any longer. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!!\u201d he said in a social media post on April 17th, in an unprecedented public rebuke to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

Since this nadir, Israeli government officials have been briefing reporters that the ceasefire cannot last and that a return to hostilities was inevitable. Last weekend, there was a flurry of reporting in Israeli newspapers that intensive US-Israeli military co-ordination had resumed at their earlier tempo, in anticipation of further joint strikes.<\/p>\n

Those strikes have yet to materialise, however, and the Trump administration has sought to downplay the significance of recent exchanges of fire around the strait of Hormuz. \u2013 The Guardian<\/p>\n

Sarah Burns – 9 hours ago<\/p>\n

Iran accuses US of \u2018reckless military adventure\u2019<\/p>\n

Iran<\/a>\u2019s foreign minister has accused Washington<\/a> of \u201ca reckless military adventure\u201d and of undermining diplomatic efforts to end the war.<\/p>\n

The comments came after the United States said it had fired on two Iranian-flagged oil tankers Friday, as US Central Command said it had disabled the two tankers as they tried to reach an Iranian port. <\/p>\n

On Friday, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, questioned in a social media post whether the US strikes were a \u201ccrude pressure tactic\u201d. <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cEvery time a diplomatic solution is on the table, the US opts for a reckless military adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest strikes came a day after the US military and Iran exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 fighting that the Iranian military said was triggered by an earlier US attack on another Iranian tanker.<\/p>\n

They also came as Iranian officials have said the United States and Iran are debating a one-page US proposal for the sides to reopen the strait and cease hostilities for 30 days as they negotiate a comprehensive deal to end the war.<\/p>\n

Despite the exchanges of fire in recent days, both president Donald Trump and Iran\u2019s foreign ministry have insisted that their month-long ceasefire was holding.<\/p>\n

A key hurdle to any agreement was the US demand for advance commitments on the fate of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, three senior Iranian officials said. \u2013 New York Times<\/p>\n

\"IranianIranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi. Photograph: Dmitry Lovetsky\/AFP via Getty