Katya Adler: Europe's Nato allies push back at reported US threat to Spain

It's become a joke - through gritted teeth - these days in EU circles, that whenever leaders meet, as they did these last two days in Cyprus - expecting to discuss practicalities, such as the new EU budget - they get railroaded by yet another crisis. There is the ongoing energy crisis provoked by the US-Israel war on Iran, Russia's aggression in ne...

It's become a joke - through gritted teeth - these days in EU circles, that whenever leaders meet, as they did these last two days in Cyprus - expecting to discuss practicalities, such as the new EU budget - they get railroaded by yet another crisis.

There is the ongoing energy crisis provoked by the US-Israel war on Iran, Russia's aggression in neighbouring Ukraine, now in its fourth year. And this Friday morning, souring relations between Europe and the United States, along with a potentially devastating defence impact, reared its Medusa-like head. Again.

"No worries," Spain's determined-to-appear-calm prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said to waiting journalists as he arrived at the leaders' summit. "We are fulfilling our obligations toward Nato."

What did he feel compelled to say he wasn't fretting about?