- 32 minutes ago
یوروپ تودی: حمله دوباره ترامپ به متحدان ناتو همزمان با ورود جنگ ایران به روز نوزدهم
هر روز ساعت ۸ صبح به وقت بروکسل برنامه صبحگاهی جدید و شاخص یورونیوز را تماشا کنید. تنها در ۲۰ دقیقه از مهمترین خبرهای روز باخبر میشوید.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/03/18/europe-today-trump-blasts-nato-allies-again-as-iran-war-enters-19th-day
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
هر روز ساعت ۸ صبح به وقت بروکسل برنامه صبحگاهی جدید و شاخص یورونیوز را تماشا کنید. تنها در ۲۰ دقیقه از مهمترین خبرهای روز باخبر میشوید.
لب بیشتر : http://parsi.euronews.com/2026/03/18/europe-today-trump-blasts-nato-allies-again-as-iran-war-enters-19th-day
مشترک شوید: یورونیوز به یازده زبان دیگر در دسترس شماست
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:14Good morning, it's Wednesday the 18th of March. I'm Maret Gwyn and you're watching Europe Today,
00:21your daily dose of European news and analysis live here from Brussels.
00:26Coming up, the war in the Middle East is reviving tensions within the NATO alliance.
00:33US President Donald Trump berated allies once again last night for refusing to help the US
00:39force the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, describing it as a, quote, foolish mistake.
00:46Leaders of several European nations have resisted pressure from the US to immediately send warships
00:52to the Strait for fear of being dragged into the war, with the leaders of France, Germany,
00:58the UK, Greece and Poland publicly rejecting military involvement. Meanwhile, a senior
01:04US intelligence officer close to Trump has abruptly stepped down from his role as he urged the
01:11president to, quote, reverse course on Iran. For more on this, I'm joined in the studio this morning
01:17by our correspondent, Shauna Murray. Good morning. Great to have you again. Listen, we're seeing an
01:23increasingly frustrated President Trump. He's again berating his allies and also coming under
01:29pressure internally with a senior intelligence officer stepping down.
01:33Well, let's look at the start of the week. He first said that NATO would have a very bad future
01:37if it doesn't support him in this war in the Gulf, in the Strait of Hormuz. And then yesterday,
01:41he actually said that he doesn't need NATO anymore and that his request for support was,
01:46in fact, a test. Now, let's take a listen to what he said. This is in the White House yesterday.
01:51NATO is making a very foolish mistake. And I've long said that, you know, I wonder whether or not
01:56NATO would ever be there for us. So this is a this was a great test because we don't need
02:02them,
02:03but they should have been there. And we, you know, we as the United States have to remember that.
02:07Well, that's a very important statement. I'll tell you why, because the only time that Article
02:115 has ever been triggered with inside NATO was after 9-11. And NATO allies followed the United
02:17States to the war in Afghanistan. And allies like Denmark, for example, lost as many soldiers per
02:21capita as the United States. So it's factually incorrect to say that NATO wouldn't be there.
02:25And that is really going to draw the ire of NATO allies who have said that, look, we don't want
02:30to
02:30get involved in this war because NATO is a defensive alliance. We're there to protect each other
02:33within NATO territory as well. We also don't know the full definition of the war, what the
02:38objectives are as well. So we'll see what happens there. But as you mentioned as well, Mared, he is
02:43under pressure because Joe Kent, one of his top counterterrorism guys within the administration,
02:48resigned on behalf of the fact that he said he doesn't want to go to war. And that is a
02:52very
02:52important resignation, not just because it's the first, but Joe Kent is maggot through and through.
02:57So the question is, is he the harbinger for Trump?
02:59And I know, Shona, you spend quite some time at the NATO HQ here in Brussels. What are you hearing
03:05there about the reaction, how are they feeling about these threats coming from the White House?
03:10Well, a few people have said this is just typical Trump-NATO bashing. The other point,
03:14Nana, we heard this at the Arctic last week when I spoke to the German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius,
03:18they're very annoyed that Donald Trump has removed the oil sanctions against Russia, which means that
03:23Russia now has more money to spend on the war in Ukraine and more money to attack NATO allies.
03:28They're obviously not going to respond publicly in relation to this, but also there's a consensus
03:31that maybe he's not talking about NATO, maybe he's just talking about European allies.
03:36But other people have said to me that they're quite annoyed with Mark Rutte because he gave
03:41fulsome, full-throated support for this war. He went on Fox News on the 2nd of March saying that
03:46all European allies were fully behind Donald Trump. And perhaps Donald Trump then expected
03:51Europeans to get behind him. And in fact, they did the opposite. They rejected it.
03:55Other things that Europeans are saying to me is, look, we can't afford to get into a mission like
03:59this. It's drawing down assets from the Baltics, from the Arctic. If we do, it's very expensive.
04:05What can we do? In fact, let's be realistic. And at the time when Donald Trump was calling for this
04:10support from the US, he wasn't sending any US Marines. And now he is. So the Europeans are kind
04:15of standing back saying there's not much we can do.
04:17And very, very briefly, Shona, this will come up when you leaders gather here in Brussels tomorrow.
04:21That's right. Big European Council meeting tomorrow wasn't expected to be on the table. But the main
04:24part of this discussion will also be the economic impact, the price of oil and so on of this war
04:29in Europe.
04:30OK. And we will, of course, be following those discussions here in Brussels tomorrow. But now
04:36moving on. Civilians in the Middle East are being caught in the crossfire of the US and Israel's war
04:41against Iran, with strikes hitting homes, hospitals and schools. The UN says that the shockwaves of the war,
04:47including airspace closures and disruptions to trade and energy routes, are affecting its ability
04:53to respond. Euronews' Maeve McMahon sat down with United Nations humanitarian affairs chief Tom Fletcher.
05:00She started by asking him whether the UN is being increasingly sidelined in a world where
05:05international law is in retreat.
05:08This is a time of impunity and division and polarisation. And a lot of people are attacking the
05:13UN. But every time you hear someone attack the UN, ask yourself what they gain by making us weaker.
05:19Because actually, impunity, brutality, polarisation, war, we were built for times like this. This is why we
05:25were invented. And look, in the last week, I've lost four colleagues on the front lines who've given their lives
05:32to go out there and save lives because of the mess the world is in right now. So is the
05:37UN perfect?
05:38No way. But, you know, I'm not going to accept the attacks that come our way.
05:42Will the UN still exist in 10 years?
05:44Yeah, absolutely. Because we represent the imperfections of the world. It's a complicated,
05:50messy world. We wish we could do more, actually, to end these conflicts, to send out our peacekeepers
05:55and our peacemakers. We can only do that where we get a mandate from the world, from the member states.
06:00And right now, the member states are in this kind of transactional, muscular, geopolitical moment where
06:08they're pulling apart rather than pulling together. And we've got to be a force for coexistence and
06:12solidarity.
06:13And just before the war began, President Trump inaugurated his so-called Board of Peace.
06:19Did he get Board of Peace very soon?
06:22Well, I mean, we look forward to hearing more from the Board of Peace about how they're ending a number
06:25of conflicts, apparently, around the world right now. I'm dealing with the consequences of so many of
06:30those conflicts, whether it's in Sudan or South Sudan or the DRC or Gaza or, say, Lebanon at this
06:37moment. The White House, when I talk to them, are very clear that the Board of Peace is not an
06:42alternative to the UN. And certainly, the other countries that have joined it have been absolutely
06:47categoric that this is not meant to replace the UN. We're still here.
06:52You don't feel threatened by it?
06:53I don't feel threatened by it. You know, we're a member state organization of over 190 members.
06:58Of course, different groups of countries come together to try and talk about peace or other
07:02issues. There's enough conflict in the world right now. If people want to bring some peace,
07:07I'm completely relaxed about that.
07:09How many people are internally displaced in Iran?
07:12Hundreds of thousands, we estimate. What's interesting at the moment is that they're not
07:15crossing the borders at the scale that we expected. So you've got a lot of instability in
07:20those countries of the region. And of course, the economic crisis is driving up that movement of
07:25people. But we're not seeing the large numbers of Iranians cross the borders at this stage. And what
07:31we're understanding from the local authorities is that local communities are responding and taking
07:35people into their homes. But that's a situation we're watching very closely.
07:39And of course, what about potential spillover of refugees coming to Europe, potentially,
07:44even though you're not seeing that now yet?
07:46I think we will. I think we will. Because this crisis can't be put neatly back into a box.
07:53Wars don't just end at frontiers. And actions have consequences. And we're in a period globally
08:00right now of reckless adventurism in so many places. And of course, civilians will be displaced
08:07by that. Civilians will also be displaced by the next wave over the coming years of climate change.
08:12For every degree of climate increase, temperature increase, a billion people will be on the move
08:19from areas that we've lived in for millennia.
08:22And just on that point of people on the move, we've seen thousands internally displaced in Lebanon.
08:27What is the situation like there?
08:29Really grim. And my boss, the Secretary General, was in Lebanon at the end of last week.
08:33And I spent all weekend on the phone to our humanitarian team there. We were trying to get a convoy
08:38of
08:38support down to the south of Lebanon, which is taking a real smashing up at the moment. And we
08:43had to turn back because of the danger levels. We've we lost a colleague in Lebanon last week
08:49as well. So it's getting more and more dangerous for us to operate. And the needs are going up.
08:54We've got tens of thousands displaced, many of them people who were displaced already by
08:59previous conflicts.
09:01Do you fear that Lebanon could be the next Gaza?
09:05I do fear that. And in fact, I fear that because that's what we're hearing from some
09:10Israeli ministers right now who are speaking in increasingly belligerent language about what
09:14they plan to do to Lebanon. It's a country I know well. I was ambassador there for four
09:20years. It's an extraordinary country. One really interesting development in the last couple of
09:25weeks is that for the first time, the Lebanese government themselves are calling for direct
09:30negotiations with Israel, which hasn't happened in the past. And so there's potential here
09:35to reset the relationship in the region. But the path for that is through dialogue and diplomacy
09:42and not through more brutal violence.
09:45And just a final reflection, perhaps. Do you have any hope for the Middle East?
09:49I'm an optimist about humans. I think we have these two competing instincts, one to fight
09:53for resource. And we're doing a lot of that right now. And those people are shouting pretty
09:57loudly. But another more important one, which is to work together as communities for that
10:01resource. And I believe ultimately that is the most the more powerful instinct that we
10:05have. And as long as I believe that, then I'll have hope.
10:12The UN's Humanitarian Affairs Chief Tom Fletcher speaking to Maeve McMahon there.
10:17Moving on now, as we heard earlier from Shawna, President Donald Trump's demand for global
10:21allies to help him unblock the Strait of Hormuz has been met with resistance. The EU has also
10:27rejected the prospect of expanding the mandate of its naval mission, Aspides, to the Strait.
10:33Jakub Janis takes a closer look at why.
10:38Donald Trump is demanding European allies step up in the Strait of Hormuz. And if they refuse,
10:44he wants NATO faces a very bad future.
10:46Do you have any minesweepers? Well, we'd rather not get involved, sir. I said, for you mean,
10:53for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that
10:57is very minor.
10:59And the EU is pushing back. Let's investigate.
11:03EU Foreign Policy Chief Kayakalas was eyeing a shift in the bloc's naval mandates for the Aspides
11:09operation. But after meeting the EU's 27 foreign ministers, her message was blunt. There is simply
11:16no appetite among member states to join the war. Quick recap. Aspides was originally launched in
11:23February 2024, it is a purely defense EU naval mission in the Red Sea, with a primary goal of
11:29protecting commercial ships from Iran-aligned Houthi drone and missile attacks. So the EU as a bloc is
11:35hitting the brakes. But it doesn't mean individual member states are walking away. Looking ahead,
11:41French President Emmanuel Macron wants to lead a fully defensive mission to reopen it once the war
11:46cools down, while Italy strongly supports expanding the defensive Aspides patrol. But Trump wants more
11:54than that, demanding the bloc secures its own energy supply. But here is a thought. Perhaps Europe's
12:01involvement should be treated as a trading card. Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Waltonen, hence
12:07Europe and Ukraine now hold strong leverage. Ukraine has four years of expertise intercepting
12:13the exact Iranian Shahed drones that are causing chaos in the Gulf. And as the EU's naval mission,
12:20Aspides literally translates to shields in Greek, perhaps this leverage is exactly the shield
12:26that Europe meets against Trump's games.
12:34Moving on now, a dispute between Hungary and Ukraine over disruption to the flow of Russian
12:40oil via the Druzhba pipeline continues. The pipeline was damaged in Ukraine in late January in what
12:47Kyiv said was a Russian drone attack. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blamed Ukraine,
12:53saying he will block the approval of a 90 billion euro loan to the war-torn country until the pipeline
13:00is repaired and Russian crude is flowing again. EU leaders will attempt to convince Orban to drop
13:07his veto when they gather for a summit here in Brussels tomorrow. Now for the latest on this very
13:12fast-moving story, I must say I'm joined by our Ukraine correspondent, Sasha Vakulina. Good morning,
13:18Sasha. So we're now hearing the Commission here in Brussels saying that Kyiv has accepted its request
13:25to send European inspectors to examine the damage on this pipeline. How soon can we expect this to
13:32happen? I think we should expect it as soon as possible. This is clearly something that Brussels and
13:37Ukraine would want to see given that the timeline of unblocking that loan is rather urgent for Kyiv.
13:45Now, according to some euro news sources, some of the inspectors might already be on the ground in
13:49Ukraine. I have to say this is the information that the office of Zelensky has not confirmed when
13:54asked about it. But in a joint statement, the president of the European Council and the president
14:00of the European Commission said the EU has offered Ukraine technical support and funding. This is key
14:06here, Emirate. The Ukrainians have welcomed and accepted this offer. European experts are available
14:12immediately. Now, Vladimir Zelensky did not hide previously the fact that him personally, he does
14:16not see this as a right thing. He says that this is still Russian oil, which is still financing Moscow's
14:23war against Ukraine now, currently in its fifth year. But he did say that the repair work is currently
14:30ongoing. Preliminary technical assessment indicated the damaged oil tank cannot be restored. Ukraine is
14:36therefore considering constructing underground storage infrastructure as a longer term and more
14:41sustainable solution. Now, underground storage would, of course, then better protect any
14:47infrastructure from any Russian attack. He also said that despite repeated massive strikes targeting oil
14:54pipeline infrastructure, Ukraine remains capable to offer alternative routes for the transit of non-Russian crude
15:00oil to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Now, this is the option that, of course, both Hungary and
15:05Slovakia have repeatedly rejected. Of course. And as you say, some movements then. But again, there is
15:12really no way forward clearly before tomorrow on this loan that Orban says he will still continue to veto
15:20until Russian crude is flowing again. And clearly, that's not going to happen anytime soon.
15:24Well, that's certainly not going to happen tomorrow as the summit will be here and will be taking place here
15:29in Brussels. Now, according to Ukraine, it will still take some time. And this is the tricky part. Orban said
15:36the loan might be unblocked, but not so fast. And that's the critical point here.
15:42OK, so last week, the Ukrainians refused to receive our experts, even though we send them there. It seems
15:49to me that they are using the entire oil blockade to intervene in the Hungarian elections in support of
15:54the TISA party. That is why the situation is extremely simple. If there is no oil, there is no money.
16:00In terms of the timeline, Ukraine expects the repairment works to be over somewhere by the end of
16:06April, which is, of course, way past tomorrow's summit and also post-Hungarian elections on the 12th of April.
16:12Yes, indeed, Sasha. We will be back, I'm sure, tomorrow with more on that story. Thank you so much for
16:18joining us
16:19again this morning. Now, the Euronews Health Summit took place in Brussels yesterday. Health may no longer be
16:26at the top of the EU political agenda, but the EU's health chief, Oliver Varheeli, said yesterday that
16:33healthcare systems in Europe are facing multiple pressing challenges and shouldn't be taken for granted.
16:39Let's take a listen. We must face the reality, therefore, that the system is under pressure
16:45and we just cannot take it for granted that it will stay with us tomorrow as well.
16:52Our population is aging and facing continuously growing burden of chronic diseases. There are less
17:01and less people financing our healthcare system while we need to provide for more and more patients.
17:09Moreover, our healthcare system is facing a competitiveness challenge, both in the field
17:15of innovation capacities and safe supply of medicines and medical devices.
17:21Also at the Health Summit, members of the European Parliament, Tilly Metz of the Greens and Stin Boss of the
17:27Liberal Renew Europe Group had a heated live discussion over who should pay for health and pharma research in Europe.
17:35Should it be the patients, the taxpayers or the pharma companies? Let's listen to what the MEPs had to say.
17:42There's a lot of public funding indeed going in research, but there's also the patient that is paying.
17:49So you could even say that the patient right now is paying twice. He is paying first with taxes, which
17:56go then to funds,
17:57and then he pays again a price at the pharmacy. So what we need for sure is at the EU
18:03level, but also at national level, more public investment.
18:07If we say to ourselves that there's an 80% difference between the countries of the accessibility to medicines,
18:14of course that cannot be so. So we have a huge issue at our hands to level this out between
18:21countries
18:21and to protect our universal healthcare. But that is only protected if we have earnings.
18:28Earnings makes taxes. Taxes makes the money to actually finance healthcare.
18:34And you can catch more of that debate on the latest episode of The Ring, Euronews' weekly debate show.
18:40But that brings this edition of Europe Today to an end. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow
18:45morning.
18:45We'll also have a special live broadcast for you tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. Brussels time as the EU's
18:5227 leaders
18:53gather here for a summit with that 90 billion loan for Ukraine hanging in the balance. Make sure you don't
18:59miss it.
18:59Thanks again for watching Europe Today here on Euronews and see you soon.
19:15We'll see you soon.
19:15We'll see you soon.
Comments