The first reaction from the NATO summit on the missiles with which Iran could threaten Europe
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance “cannot confirm at this time” that Iran has ballistic missiles capable of reaching European capitals such as Berlin, Paris and Rome, as Israel claims, but said that if true, “it would be all the more proof” that the operation launched by US President Donald Trump against Iran is “crucial”.
The Wall Street Journal wrote that on Friday night, Iranian forces attacked the US-British Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean with ballistic missiles, a location about 4,000 kilometers from Iran, almost double the maximum range that Iranian missiles were believed to have.
Asked in an interview with CBS News if he agreed with Israel's assessment that the base was attacked with missiles capable of reaching European capitals such as Berlin, Paris and Rome, the NATO chief said he could not confirm this at this time.
“We're looking into that. But if that were true, it would be all the more evidence that what the president is doing here, removing the ballistic missile capability, removing the nuclear capability from Iran, is crucial,” Mark Rutte replied.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia base failed after one missile suffered a technical failure and the second was intercepted by the US defense systems' SM-3 missiles.
A nuclear Iran, 'an existential threat'
The Secretary General of NATO warned that an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons would represent “a direct threat, an existential threat to Israel, to the region, to Europe, to the stability of the world”, so the operation launched by Donald Trump is “crucial”.
“I've seen the polls, but I really hope the American people will be with him, because he's doing this to make the whole world safer,” Rutte continued.
Asked again whether Berlin, Paris and Rome were within “direct threat range” of Iranian missiles, the official explained: “What we know for sure is that they are very close to having that capability, whether it's the case of the British Diego Garcia base, we're still evaluating it.”
“If it's true, it means they already have that capability. If it's not true, we know they're very close to having it. And that's exactly why I feel like in Europe, most of the politicians, this resonates with them. What the president is doing here, that is, degrading Iran's ability to be, again, an exporter of chaos, pure chaos, in the region, in the world,” he added.
Israel's army chief had said that “Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range”
On Saturday evening, the head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spoke about the case of the Diego Garcia base and issued a warning to European countries.
“Iran launched a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,000 kilometers at a US target on the island of Diego Garcia. These missiles were not intended to hit Israel. Their range reaches the capitals of Europe – Berlin, Paris and Rome are all within direct threat range,” Eyal Zamir said in a video message, according to The Times of Israel.
Until now, publicly available information indicated that the longest-range missiles operated by Iran could reach a range of about 2,000 km. If by these only a part of Eastern Europe fell under the umbrella of the ballistic threat, those invoked by Israel can target almost the entire continent.
