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"No Way Jose" |
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is visiting U.S. President Donald
Trump next week, but said Friday he can't yet give the president a
response to American requests for assistance in Syria and the Strait of
Hormuz.
Rutte will meet Trump at the White House next Thursday to
discuss bilateral relations, international trade and defense and
security cooperation, the Dutch government announced.
But Rutte said the visit comes too soon for him to say
whether the Netherlands will agree to U.S. requests for assistance in
Syria and the Gulf, because his government is still discussing them.
"I can't have a conversation with the American president about it if
the procedures in the Netherlands have not been completed," Rutte said.
"So that is not a point we are putting on the agenda."
He said that if Trump raises the issue, "I will tell him we are carefully evaluating it."
Last month, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said
after a meeting in Brussels that NATO allies gave him no firm
commitments that they will participate in a global effort to secure
international waterways against threats from Iran.
Since then, Dutch media, citing unnamed sources, have
reported that the government in The Hague is considering sending a
frigate to the Gulf. Rutte declined to give details of possible Dutch
involvement, saying no decision has been made.
The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine
Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Tuesday that Washington will move ahead with
plans to build a coalition of nations to monitor and deter Iranian
threats against commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf area and in a
busy waterway between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
Note EU-Digest: Donald Trump created the problem with Iran, which
has stirred up unrest within the Middle East, after the US stepped out
of the Iran Nuclear Treaty. Hopefully PM Rutte of the Netherlands will
tell Trump during his visit to the White House, that as to Trump's
request for Dutch troops in Syria, or Dutch Navy support in the Persian
Gulf, the answer is " NO WAY JOSE".
Read more: Dutch leader to visit Trump for talks on trade, defense - San Antonio Express-News
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