NATO Assesses Details of US Troop Withdrawal From Germany

NATO is reviewing the United States’s plan to pull roughly 5,000 troops out of Germany, as friction over the war in Iran deepens between Washington and its European allies.

In a statement on Saturday, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart said the alliance is “working with the US to understand the details of their decision on force posture in Germany”, with the Pentagon saying the process is expected to take six to 12 months.

The proposed reduction lands against a backdrop of sharpened tensions between US President Donald Trump and European leaders, who he has accused of doing too little to support the US-Israel war against Iran. Trump has singled out Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, after Merz said the United States was being “humiliated” by Iran’s leadership.

Trump hit back by telling Merz to stop “interfering” in matters involving Iran and instead focus on “fixing his broken country”. He has also dismissed NATO as a “paper tiger” and “absolutely useless”.

Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane said the troop withdrawal appears to be one part of a broader effort to “really hitting the Germans where it hurts”, alongside tariffs on EU automobiles that are projected to cost Germany’s economy billions.

“The actions need to be seen through the prism of this tension between the Trump administration and the Merz government,” Kane said.

Source: Al Jazeera