NATO rules out use of collective defense clause against Iran

According to the head of the transatlantic organization, who spoke to Reuters agencythere is currently no reason to trigger Article 5, which establishes a joint response when one of the members is attacked.

“No one is talking about Article 5,” Rutte said. “The most important thing is that our adversaries saw yesterday that NATO is very strong and very vigilant, and it has been even more vigilant since Saturday.”

This Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio classified the launch of an Iranian missile over Turkish territory as “unacceptable”, hours after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied that the attack was sufficient to trigger NATO’s collective defense clause.

Rubio made these statements about the attack on Turkey during a conversation with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, according to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott.

NATO defenses intercepted an Iranian missile over the Eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday, and the debris from the anti-aircraft ammunition fell in the far south of the country, causing no casualties, the Turkish government confirmed.

Iran denies firing missile at Turkey

The Iranian Armed Forces contradicted statements by Western authorities, denying that they had launched a missile at Türkiye.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran respects the sovereignty of Turkey, a neighboring and friendly country, and denies any missile launches towards its territory,” the General Staff said in a press statement carried by Iranian media.

Rutte expresses support for US and Israel in war against Iran

The previous day, NATO’s secretary general had already expressed “massive” support from allied countries for the war started in Iran by the US, despite having said that the alliance is not directly involved in the conflict and despite criticism from some European leaders such as Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez.

“NATO is not involved, but obviously the allies massively support what (US President Donald Trump) is doing,” Rutte said in an interview with Newsmax, an American conservative television network.

He added that allies “are also facilitating what the United States is doing now in the region, eliminating Iran’s nuclear capability and, of course, its missile capability.”

Rutte also returned to defend that the alliance “is on alert” and that the allies’ priority is to defend “every inch of NATO territory in a comprehensive way”.