The Pentagon is exploring ways for the US to punish NATO countries for failing to support the Iran war, including reviewing the UK’s claim to the Falklands Islands and suspending Spain from the alliance. 

The policy options are detailed in an email expressing frustration at some allies’ perceived reluctance or refusal to grant Washington access, basing and overflight rights – known as ABO – for the Iran war, a US official told Reuters.

The email stated that ABO is ‘just the absolute baseline for NATO,’ according to the official, who added that the options were circulating at high levels in the Pentagon.

The memo also includes an option to consider reassessing US diplomatic support for longstanding European ‘imperial possessions,’ such as the Falkland Islands near Argentina.

The State Department’s website states that the islands are administered by the United Kingdom but are still claimed by Argentina, whose Libertarian President Javier Milei is a Trump ally.

Britain and Argentina fought a brief war in 1982 over the islands after Argentina made a failed bid to take them. Some 650 Argentine soldiers and 255 British troops died before Argentina surrendered.

Donald Trump has repeatedly insulted Prime Minister Keir Starmer, calling him cowardly because of his unwillingness to join the US war with Iran, ​saying he was ‘No Winston Churchill’ and describing Britain’s aircraft carriers as ‘toys’.

Britain initially did not grant a request from the US to allow its aircraft to attack Iran from two British bases, but later ​agreed to allow defensive missions aimed at protecting residents of the region, including British citizens, amid Iranian retaliation.

(L-R) US Vice President JD Vance and US President Donald Trump listen to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a meeting with Lebanon Ambassador to the US and Israel Ambassador to the US, at the White House in Washington, DC on April 23

One option in the email envisions suspending ‘difficult’ countries from important or prestigious positions at NATO, the official said.

The US President has harshly criticised NATO allies for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz, which was closed to global shipping ‌following the start of the air war on February 28.

He has also declared he is considering withdrawing from the alliance.

‘Wouldn’t you if you were me?’ Trump asked Reuters in an April 1 interview, in response to a question about whether the US pulling out of NATO was a possibility.

But the email does not suggest that the United States do so, the official said. It also does not propose closing bases in Europe.

The official declined to say whether the options included a widely expected US drawdown of some forces from Europe, however.

Asked for comment on the email, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson responded: ‘As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us.

‘The War Department will ensure that the President has credible options to ensure that our allies are no longer a paper tiger and instead do their part. We have no further comment on any internal deliberations to that effect,’ Wilson said.

The US-Israeli war with Iran has raised serious questions about the future of ​the 76-year-old bloc and provoked unprecedented concern that the US might not come to the aid of European allies should they be attacked, analysts and diplomats say.

Britain, France and others say that joining the US naval ​blockade would amount to entering the war, but that they would be willing to help keep the Strait open once there was a lasting ceasefire or the conflict ended.

But Trump administration officials have stressed that NATO cannot be a one-way street.

They have expressed frustration with Spain, where the Socialist leadership said it ​would not allow its bases or airspace to be used to attack Iran. The United States has two important military bases in Spain: Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.

The policy options outlined in the email would be intended to send a strong signal to NATO allies with the goal of ‘decreasing the sense of entitlement on the part of the Europeans,’ the official said, summarising the email.

The option to suspend Spain from the alliance would have a limited effect on US military operations but a significant symbolic impact, the email argues.

The official did not disclose how the United States might pursue suspending Spain from the alliance.

Addressing reporters at the Pentagon earlier this month, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said ‘a lot has been laid bare’ by the war with Iran, noting that Iran’s longer-range missiles cannot hit the United States but can reach Europe.

‘We get questions, or roadblocks, or hesitations … You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them,’ Hegseth said.

Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that the war aims to prevent Iran from causing a ‘nuclear holocaust’ in major European cities such as London.

The US President said: ‘I think that there’s nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that takes out one of your cities or two of your cities or three.

‘I think there’s nothing worse than a nuclear weapon that’s going to destroy the Middle East, including Israel. I think there’s nothing worse than Europe being under attack by people that have missiles now that reach Europe.’

On Iranian missile capabilities, Trump continued: ‘As you know, they don’t reach us, but they reach Europe. But they will reach us at some time, probably the not-too-distant future, unless we stop them now.

‘I think there would be nothing worse than having a nuclear Holocaust in Europe. London, Paris, various places in Germany, all targeted. What I say is you can’t let them have [a nuclear weapon].’