NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte commented on the US and Israeli operation against Iran. He expressed support on behalf of the Alliance and stressed the importance of Ukraine’s experience in countering “Shahed” drones.
NATO backs operation against Iran
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Alliance supports the US operation against Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities. However, NATO as an organization does not participate in the operation. He said this in an interview with Newsmax.
“Obviously, allies are basically, on a massive scale, supportive of what the president is doing and are also enabling what the US is doing now in the region, taking out this nuclear capability of Iran and, of course, the missile capability,” Rutte said.
According to him, European allies remain concerned about the security situation. He also pointed to threats and assassination plots linked to the Iranian regime. Rutte said his own country, the Netherlands, faces constant threats from Tehran.
The NATO chief added that the Alliance provides “key enabling assistance” to the US and Israeli campaign. NATO forces remain ready to defend Alliance territory if tensions escalate. As an example, he mentioned the response to a missile threat targeting Turkey on March 4.
“You saw that this morning when news came in of a missile which was heading for Turkey and potentially impacting on U.S. interests in Turkey, taken out by NATO anti-missile systems. So, this is working. We are vigilant,” Rutte said.
The NATO Secretary General also commented on the Alliance’s collective defense clause, known as Article 5. It states that an attack against one NATO member is considered an attack against the entire Alliance.
“For good reasons, we always will stay very ambiguous about when Article 5 is triggered. We keep it very ambiguous because we don’t want to make our enemies, our adversaries, any wiser.”
He added that if NATO ever invokes Article 5, the Alliance will not hide it. Until then, he said, NATO will avoid specifics so that adversaries carefully weigh the risks of attacking the Alliance.
Impact on Russia’s war against Ukraine
Mark Rutte said the US and Israeli military operation against Iran could disrupt Tehran’s ability to support Russia. According to him, Iran has been one of the key factors helping Russia wage its war against Ukraine. In particular, it supplied Russia with “Shahed” drones.
“The fact now that Iran is facing this full onslaught of Israel and the US will also degrade their capacity to export their chaos even to Russia and, therefore, to Ukraine,” the NATO Secretary General said.
Rutte also stressed that Ukraine’s experience in countering drones is now available to partners in NATO countries and the Middle East. According to him, everyone is collectively learning from the events of the Russia–Ukraine war.
“We have seen over the last four years how Ukraine has gained this knowledge of drone technology and anti-drone technology, now basically making this available to our friends and partners in the Middle East,” Rutte said.
