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Hello and welcome to NewsHour, coming to you live from London. I'm James Kamara Sami.

The White House has confirmed that the negotiators Steve Wickoff and Jared Kushner are heading to Islamabad for talks with Iran on Saturday.

An Iranian delegation headed by its foreign minister has already arrived in the Pakistani capital.

We'll have more on that diplomacy in a few moments, but we're going to begin with how the war in the Middle East is focusing minds in Europe,

not just because of the economic impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,

but because of the reaction from the White House to the reluctance of NATO allies to support

the US military action. For weeks, President Trump has been warning of consequences, and now

a leaked email from the Pentagon suggests what they might be. One idea floated is that Washington could suspend the most

vocal European opponent of the war, Spain, from NATO. Today a NATO spokesperson has said the

alliance's founding treaty does not allow a member to be expelled. And today as well, the U.S.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth restated the administration's position.

Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free riding

is over. America and the free world deserve allies who are capable, who are loyal,

and you understand that being an ally is not a one-way street. It's a two-way

street. We are not counting on Europe, but they need the Strait of Hormuz much more than we do

and might want to start doing less talking and having less fancy conferences in Europe

and getting a boat.

Well, there has been a two-day gathering, not a conference, but an EU leaders summit in Cyprus

this week, where some leaders stress the need for NATO unity, but also for Europe to be more

security self-sufficient. With one of those leaders, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk,

questioning whether a Trump White House would be loyal to NATO's Clause 5, that's its mutual

...