Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street in London, Wednesday. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, pool)

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, ratcheting up his criticism of European allies and exposing a wider rift in the trans-Atlantic alliance — this time over the Iran war.

While Trump’s talk of a possible NATO pullout dates back years, the comments to The Telegraph newspaper in the U.K., published Wednesday, were among the clearest and most disparaging yet — suggesting that the fracture has deepened perhaps to a point of no return.

Asked whether he would reconsider U.S. membership in the alliance after the conflict in the Middle East ends, Trump replied: “Oh yes, I would say (it’s) beyond reconsideration.”

It wasn’t clear whether Trump could unilaterally pull the U.S. out, because it appears that he would need congressional approval. NATO didn’t provide immediate comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that his government was “fully committed to NATO” and called it “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen.”

Before a Trump speech later Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, and Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said in a joint statement that “NATO is the most successful military alliance in history” and stressed that the Senate “will continue to support the alliance for the peace and protection it provides” the United States, Europe and the world.

Even since his first term, Trump has urged the allies to assume greater responsibility for their own security and spend more on defense. He has argued that the U.S. has done more for them than the other way around.