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TEHRAN
Tehran said on Thursday that Nato was complicit in the US-Israeli war against Iran, after the bloc’s chief noted its support for the United States in the conflict.
Responding to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of allies for not supporting the war, Nato boss Mark Rutte told Fox News that hundreds of American planes launched from bases in Italy.
Trump’s second term has been marked by tensions with Nato allies, who have voiced skepticism over the need for the conflict in the Middle East.
“Country after country, ally after ally after ally, have made their bases available for Epic Fury,” Rutte told US TV channel Fox News, referring to the US military operation in Iran. “Five hundred US planes took off from US bases in Italy to support Epic Fury,” he said, referring the US name for the operation against Iran. Trump had told Rutte on Wednesday he was “let down” by members of the alliance who did not back his war against Iran.
Rutte also told Fox News that Romania “cut down on commercial air flights and airplanes because they had to use the airports for the tanker facilities” during the Iran war. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei condemned the Nato chief’s admission of “active complicity” in the “unlawful war”.
“This is a clear and damning admission of Nato’s active complicity in an unlawful war of aggression against a sovereign UN Member State,” Baghaei wrote on X. He accused Nato of “a flagrant violation of peremptory norms of international law and the core principles of the UN Charter”. Italy was quick to distance itself from Rutte’s words, which the defence ministry said gave “a completely misleading message by confusing the type of flights that were authorised”.
It said Italy had allowed only “technical and logistical” US flights during Epic Fury under existing agreements with the United States. Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saudi has spoken by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, said the Saudi Foreign Ministry. The pair “reviewed the latest developments” in continued US-Iran negotiations “as well as the progress made to implement the agreed understandings” between the two sides, the ministry said in a readout of the call.
“They also discussed regional developments and emphasised the importance of continuing efforts to advance dialogue and diplomatic solutions that serve the shared interests of all countries and peoples of the region,” the ministry said. Some 20 million barrels of crude oil have exited the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at the Reuters Global Energy Forum in New York.
Wright blamed Iranian mines in the vital waterway for any delay in a return to normal oil shipping levels, according to Al Jazeera. Meanwhile, Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, has warned that “contradictory statements” by US officials on the MoU “will do nothing to reduce the accumulated distrust of Iranians” towards Washington.
Instead, they “will merely serve as a reminder of past breaches of faith”, Baghaei wrote on social media, without specifying which exact statements he was referring to.
“The US ruling establishment must bear in mind that the principle of ‘commitment for commitment’ requires the fulfilment of reciprocal obligations and the avoidance of interpretations that are entirely at odds with the explicit wording of the memorandum of understanding text,” he said.
