US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he’s “not happy” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not joining the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, though he allowed US forces to use UK bases.
“I’m not happy with the UK,” Trump said during a White House meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. “It’s taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land. This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
Trump also singled out Spain, whose left-wing government refused to let US planes use its bases for attacks and resisted NATO defense spending increases.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump told reporters. “We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain.”
The comments came as US and Israeli strikes hit targets across Tehran, marking the fourth day of the conflict.
Drones and missiles targeted Iranian oil facilities and US embassies in the Gulf, while Israel intensified operations in Lebanon against Tehran-backed Hezbollah after the militia entered the fight.
Israel announced a “large-scale wave” of strikes on Iran’s capital Tuesday. Local media showed smoke rising over central Tehran, including government buildings, and reported attacks on one of the city’s two airports.
“Their air defence, air force, navy, and leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said: ‘Too late!’” Trump posted on social media two days after initially signalling willingness for talks and four days after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva denied that his country had sought talks with the US.