US President Donald Trump said he is considering pulling his country out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) after the alliance refused to join the war against Iran.
In an interview with The Telegraph published yesterday, Trump described NATO as a “paper tiger”. “Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO,” the president said when asked if he would reconsider US membership of the alliance after the conflict.
“I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.” Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, a critical sea passage for about 20 per cent of the world’s oil, which is now considered closed due to the war.
Trump has demanded that allies send warships to reopen the strait — a request that has been largely baulked at. The president named the UK in his criticism of European countries, while tackling British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, for Britain’s refusal to back the US.
“You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” Trump said. This is not Trump’s first public rebuke of NATO. In January, he said the US had “never needed” its NATO allies, and dismissed the sacrifices of allied nations in the 20-year Afghanistan war.
His comments drew criticism from European leaders including Starmer. Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry says Trump’s claim that the country has asked for a ceasefire is “false and baseless”, Iranian state media reports.
Earlier, in a Truth Social post, the US President said Iran’s “new regime president” had made the request – but he didn’t clarify who he was referring to. In London, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will host a meeting with dozens of countries this week on the Strait of Hormuz.
In another development, the US says it has now hit “12,300+” Iranian targets, including Iranian command and control centres, ballistic missile sites and storage bunkers. As well as this, more than 155 Iranian vessels have been “damaged or destroyed”, Centcom said.
The update also lists the types of aircraft that have been involved in “13,000+” combat flights since the war started – these include F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, and B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers.
