DOHA
\nBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted on Friday that NATO was \u201cin America\u2019s interests\u201d as he ended a three-day visit to the Gulf to discuss bolstering the \u201cfragile\u201d Middle East truce. Starmer\u2019s comments followed US President Donald Trump\u2019s renewed attacks this week on the Western military alliance and his threats to withdraw from it, after a refusal by NATO allies to join the US-Israel war against Iran.
\n\u201cIt is in America\u2019s interests. It\u2019s in European interests,\u201d Starmer told UK broadcasters of the nearly 80-year-old security bloc. \u201cNATO is a defensive alliance, which for decades has kept us much safer than we would otherwise have been,\u201d he added, while reiterating European members \u201cneed to do more\u201d financial burden sharing.
\nStarmer spoke before leaving Qatar, the last stop of his tour of the war-hit region which also included visits to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain The British leader talked by phone to Trump late on Thursday, when he said he set out \u201cthe views of the region here\u201d to the US president, primarily centered on the Strait of Hormuz.
\nThe crucial maritime chokepoint has remained largely closed in recent days. It was due to be re-opened under a temporary ceasefire between the United States and Iran, announced this week, but has been jeopardized by Israeli attacks on Lebanon and accusations that the truce is not being implemented.
\n\u201cWe spent most of the time on the call talking about the practical plan that\u2019s going to be needed to get navigation through the Strait and the role that the UK is playing,\u201d Starmer said. He said the UK was building a coalition of over 30 countries to work on a diplomatic and military plan to get vessels moving through the waterway.
\nIn an earlier interview, Starmer had appeared to draw parallels between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing frustration over rising oil and other costs linked to the war. \u201cI\u2019m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses\u2019 bills go up and down on energy, because of the actions of Putin or Trump,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DOHA British Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted on Friday that NATO was \u201cin America\u2019s interests\u201d as he ended a three-day visit to the Gulf to discuss bolstering the \u201cfragile\u201d Middle East truce. Starmer\u2019s comments followed US President Donald Trump\u2019s renewed attacks this week on the Western military alliance and his threats to withdraw from it, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-541180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n