Updated ,first published
London: US President Donald Trump has ramped up his complaints about European allies by saying he is thinking of withdrawing from the NATO alliance, in an extraordinary threat to a pact that has underpinned western security for decades.
Trump said the US withdrawal was now “beyond reconsideration” because of the lack of support from European leaders for the strikes on Iran, including decisions to prevent American forces using air bases to defeat the Iranian regime.
The comments, in an interview with London’s The Telegraph, came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called NATO a “one way street” and said the US would have to consider its membership in the wake of the war in the Middle East.
They also revealed that Trump thought of NATO as a “paper tiger” and knew that Russian President Vladimir Putin thought of the alliance in the same terms.
While Trump has complained for many years about NATO, and pushed European leaders to make a big commitment to increase their defence spending, he claimed last year to be happy with the new funding decisions for the alliance over the long term.
But he has complained about the lack of support from European leaders in the war on Iran, leading The Telegraph to ask him in an interview if he would reconsider the US membership of NATO in the wake of the Middle East conflict.
He replied: “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
Trump argued that the US had helped Europe in the past and should have been given the same support when it launched attacks on Iran, adding that he believed this support should have been “automatic” given the history of the alliance.
“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us,” he said.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was asked about Trump’s remarks soon after they were published, but he avoided any criticism of the president and held to his position on the war.
“This is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict. It is not in our national interest,” Starmer said in a press conference televised to the nation.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, Starmer said NATO was the single most effective military alliance in the world and that he would not give in to pressure over the war in Iran.
“Whatever the pressure, whatever the noise, my job as British prime minister is to concentrate on what’s in the British national interest,” he said.
“That’s what’s guided me through this conflict so far.”
Speaking on Fox News, Rubio also signalled a shift in approach on NATO.
“I think there’s no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to re-examine that relationship,” he said.
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, was founded in 1949 and now includes 32 member nations who pledge to defend each other if one comes under attack. It has been cemented and expanded under a series of US presidents, helping defeat Russia and its allies in the Cold War.
With thousands of US troops serving in Europe under the alliance, any withdrawal from the pact under Trump would likely require years of work and would only take full effect if later presidents acted on his decision.
Trump will deliver a prime-time address on Wednesday at 9pm, Washington time (12pm Thursday AEDT), after saying earlier that the war in Iran would end in the coming weeks, with the US having largely completed its military goals.
The US president on Tuesday (US time) also said he wanted countries that rely on the Strait of Hormuz for their energy needs should take responsibility for keeping the vital waterway open.
He said the US “will not have anything to do with” what happens next in the strait that has been closed by the Islamic Republic. Gulf states rely on the waterway for both exports and imports, including food, and 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply flows through it.
Trump also expressed frustration with allies who have been unwilling to do more to support the US war effort, telling them to “go get your own oil.” Trump recently has vacillated between insisting there is progress in diplomatic talks with Iran and threatening to widen the war.
US gas prices has jumped past an average of $US4 a gallon ($1.53 a litre) for the first time since 2022, as the Iran war continues to push fuel prices higher worldwide.
The US has presented Iran with a 15-point plan aimed at bringing about a ceasefire, which includes a demand for the strait to be reopened. Iran’s own five-point response includes it retaining sovereignty over the waterway.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has acknowledged receiving direct messages from US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. However, he insisted the messages didn’t constitute negotiations.
Trump has repeatedly described Iran and America has having talks over the war, while Pakistan has been a key intermediary along with Egypt and Turkey during the conflict.
“I receive messages from Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations,” Araghchi said in an interview with pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera.
While the diplomatic tussle bubbles away, the US has continued to expand its military presence in the region. Thousands of Marines and paratroopers have been ordered to the region in possible preparation for an assault on Kharg Island.
Hostilities in the region continue to mount, with more than 3000 lives already lost. On Wednesday, a tanker off the coast of Qatar was hit with a projectile, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said. The crew was reportedly unharmed. A fully loaded Kuwaiti oil tanker came under attack off Dubai the day before, one of more than 20 ships attacked by Iran during the war.
Meanwhile, Bahrain sounded two alerts for incoming missiles, and said an Iranian attack had caused a fire at a business facility. In Kuwait, the state-run KUNA news agency said a drone had hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking a “large fire” that crews were working to control.
Two drones were also intercepted in Saudi Arabia, and air raid sirens sounded in Israel, though there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
Israel on Wednesday sounded warnings of incoming fire from both Yemen and Iran, while launching its own attacks in Lebanon that killed at least five people. The strike in Lebanon came without warning, and Israel did not declare the target.
Israel also struck a plant supplying Iran’s theocracy with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, to allegedly use in a chemical weapons program. Iran acknowledged the strike on Tofigh Daru factory, but insisted it only supplied “hospital drugs” used in medical operations.
Hospitals extensively use fentanyl to treat severe pain. But a small amount of the drug can be fatal.
Both Israel and the United States have warned in recent years Iran was experimenting with fentanyl in munitions. The US previously pointed to Iranian academic research studying how Russia probably used a fentanyl derivative during the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage seizure by Chechen militants.
Israel alleged Tofigh Daru supplied fentanyl to an advanced research institute in Tehran, known by its acronym SPND. The US alleges SPND has conducted research and testing that could be applicable to the development of nuclear explosive devices and other weapons.
with AP, Bloomberg
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.