Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the U.S. Defense Department’s growing frustration with NATO, Hezbollah rejecting the Israel-Lebanon cease-fire, and bolstered ties between Colombia and Venezuela.
‘They Were Not There for Us’
The United States is considering punishing NATO allies that have failed to support U.S. military operations in the Iran war, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday. These penalties could include the potential suspension of Spain’s NATO membership as well as Washington reviewing its position on Britain’s claim to the disputed Falkland Islands.
According to the unnamed official’s description of an internal Defense Department email prepared by the Pentagon’s chief policy advisor, Elbridge Colby, these punishments would be in response to European nations’ reluctance or refusal to allow U.S. forces to use their bases to launch attacks on Iran. Access, basing, and overflight rights are “just the absolute baseline for NATO,” Colby reportedly wrote, echoing U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated criticism that NATO is a “paper tiger” alliance for its refusal to help U.S. forces reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Foreign Policy has not independently confirmed the email.
Madrid and London have taken the brunt of the White House’s ire in recent weeks. Spain (along with Italy and France) have refused to let U.S. troops use their bases or airspace to strike Iran; the U.S. military has access to two key Spanish bases, Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base. In response, Trump threatened in March to “cut off all dealings” with Madrid, telling reporters, “We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
Similarly, London initially refused to allow U.S. aircraft to attack Iran from two British bases. Although British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ultimately relented to allow access for defensive missions, the country’s hesitancy did not go unnoticed by Trump; last week, the U.S. president threatened to unravel parts of the U.S.-U.K. trade deal.
“As President Trump has said, despite everything that the United States has done for our NATO allies, they were not there for us,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said on Friday in response to Reuters’s request for comment on the email. “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 added, using the Trump administration’s preferred name for the Defense Department.
Yet Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez does not appear concerned with the Trump administration’s reported threats. “We do not work off emails,” Sánchez said of the internal Pentagon memo. “We work off official documents and government positions, in this case of the United States.” NATO’s founding treaty does not include any mechanism to suspend or remove one of its members, though it does allow voluntary withdrawal—something that Trump has threatened to do.
The response to the Pentagon’s Falkland Islands threat, however, appears to be more worrisome. The United Kingdom and Argentina have long disputed which country should govern the South Atlantic territory. In 1982, Britain defeated Argentina in a 10-week undeclared war over the land, and the United States has recognized de facto British control over the Falklands since.
“Sovereignty rests with the U.K., and the islands’ right to self-determination is paramount,” a spokesperson for Starmer said on Friday. “It’s been our consistent position and will remain the case.”
However, far-right Argentine President Javier Milei, a close ally of Trump, expressed optimism over the Pentagon’s proposed reconsideration. “We are doing everything humanly possible so that the Argentine Malvinas, the islands, the entire territory return to the hands of Argentina,” Milei said during a radio interview on Friday.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Truce in doubt. Hezbollah rejected the U.S.-Lebanon cease-fire as “meaningless” on Friday, just one day after Trump announced that Israel and Lebanon had agreed to extend their 10-day truce for another three weeks. The Iranian proxy group has the right “to respond proportionately” to any Israeli attack, Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad said on Friday, adding that any deal that fails to require Israel’s full withdrawal from southern Lebanon gives the Lebanese people the “right to resist the occupation.” Hezbollah was not part of the Israel-Lebanon negotiations and has called on Beirut to cease all direct contact with Israel.
In response, Israel launched new airstrikes into Lebanon on Friday. “We are maintaining full freedom of action against any threat, including emerging ones,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, accusing Hezbollah of “trying to sabotage” the truce. Israel maintains that it must have a military presence in southern Lebanon in order to protect Israeli citizens living near the border.
Although both Israeli and Hezbollah forces violated the initial 10-day cease-fire, continued strikes on Friday inject further insecurity into the region’s already precarious peace efforts. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who helped mediate the Israel-Lebanon talks on Thursday, has placed the onus of achieving peace on Hezbollah. “What’s standing in the way” of permanent peace is “a terrorist organization that operates within their [Lebanon’s] national territory,” Rubio said.
A fresh start. Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday became the first head of state to visit Caracas since U.S. forces captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in early January. During his meeting with interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, Petro was expected to discuss bolstering bilateral energy cooperation, including reopening the Antonio Ricaurte binational gas pipeline.
Dwindling natural gas production in Colombia has forced Petro to seek out new partnerships. In 2022, he reversed his predecessor’s decision to cut economic ties with Caracas. However, Colombia’s relationship with Venezuela remained frayed, as Petro did not recognize Maduro as the country’s legitimate leader.
Friday’s meeting also sought to tackle border security concerns, particularly in the Catatumbo region. The mountainous, jungle area is home to some of Colombia’s largest coca crops, and in the past year, it has been engulfed in particularly deadly fighting between armed guerrilla groups vying for territorial control. Venezuela launched the Catatumbo Lightning Operation in late 2024 to combat these drug-trafficking groups, but Bogotá has accused Caracas of accidentally firing on Colombian civilians.
“Without intelligence, bombs fall where they shouldn’t,” Petro said. “If shots are fired without intelligence, they end up killing people, as has already happened in Colombia.” Meanwhile, Bogotá has accused these armed groups of working with the support or complicity of Venezuela’s military, though Caracas denies this.
To the ballot box. Deir al-Balah, one of the cities in Gaza where Hamas reasserted control following the withdrawal of Israeli troops as part of the October 2025 cease-fire, will hold municipal elections on Saturday for the first time in more than 20 years. Roughly 70,000 people are eligible to vote in what is expected to be a test of Hamas’s popularity following Israel’s devastating two-year assault on the territory. More than 400 local councils in the West Bank will also hold elections on Saturday, but Deir al-Balah will be the only municipality in Gaza to do so.
The Central Elections Commission (CEC), the independent body that administers elections in the Palestinian territories, selected Deir al-Balah for the vote because it suffered relatively less infrastructure damage from Israeli strikes during the war than the rest of Gaza, according to a CEC spokesperson. The Palestinian Authority, which partially governs the West Bank, called for this weekend’s vote. Hamas forcibly removed the Palestinian Authority from power in Gaza in 2007. The militant group has vowed not to interfere in Saturday’s race, field its own list of candidates, or explicitly endorse any of the campaigns. However, some candidates have been accused of having ties to Hamas.
“Hamas has already decided to hand over all responsibilities and powers to the winning list right after the results are released,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told the New York Times on Friday. Yet the militant group remains popular. Around 51 percent of people in Gaza approve of Hamas’s recent efforts to control the area and restore order, according to the West Bank-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in October 2025.
What in the World?
In which country did Pope Leo conclude his tour of Africa on Thursday?
A. Nigeria
Odds and Ends
A New York federal prosecutor’s office charged a U.S. special forces soldier on Thursday with using classified intelligence to win more than $400,000 in an online betting market. According to the indictment, Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was involved in the “planning and execution” of the U.S. capture of Maduro in January. Prosecutors allege that Van Dyke used his inside information to place winning bets related to the Maduro raid on Polymarket, one of the world’s largest prediction platforms.
If convicted, Van Dyke could face years in prison for commodities fraud, wire fraud, theft, and the use of confidential government information for personal gain. He has not yet entered a plea but has been released on a $250,000 bond. He is expected to appear in federal court in New York City on April 28.
And the Answer Is…
B. Equatorial Guinea
During his trip, Leo clashed with the Trump administration over the Iran war. The tiff isn’t all that surprising when one considers the postwar precedent of papal peace advocacy, Vanessa R. Corcoran writes.
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