The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Donald Trump and Europe.
Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the U.S. in talks to end the two-month-old war.
A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”
“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive remarks,” the official said.
Germany is the US military’s biggest basing location in Europe, serving as a key training hub with some 35,000 active-duty military personnel.
In his crackdown on Nato allies, Trump has singled out Germany for not sending their navies to help open the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict.
The waterway, a chokepoint for global oil shipments, has remained virtually shut, causing market turmoil and unprecedented disruption in energy supplies.
Merz has been critical of the US and Israeli attack on Iran, saying on Monday that Iran’s leadership was humiliating the United States and getting US officials to travel to Pakistan and then leave without results, in an unusually pointed rebuke over the conflict.
He also said he did not see what exit strategy the US was pursuing in the Iran war – comments that underlined deep divisions between Washington and its European NATO allies, which had already been festering over Ukraine and other issues.
The Pentagon said the withdrawal was expected to be completed over the next six to twelve months.
More to follow…
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