The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baghai, accused NATO today of complicity in the “illegal war of aggression” launched against Iran by the United States and Israel.
Baghai was responding to comments made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who revealed that “500 American aircraft took off from American bases in Italy” during the war.
In an interview with the American television channel Fox News, Rutte rejected the narrative that the European allies of the United States did not provide help during the war with Iran – a recurring complaint from American President Donald Trump –, arguing that this number relative to flights carried out from bases in Italy during the so-called “Operation Epic Fury” is “a huge number.”
“If we consider the whole of Europe, we are talking about between four thousand and five thousand flight missions,” the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance underlined.
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“This is a clear and damning admission of NATO’s active complicity in an illegal war of aggression waged against a sovereign UN member state,” Esmail Baghai wrote on the social network X.
“The Secretary General of NATO explicitly identified Italy and Romania as participants in the aggression against Iran,” the spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized.
“These countries, along with all other European countries that supported the Israeli-American aggression against Iran, must explain to their own peoples and to the world why they chose to become accomplices to this flagrant act of aggression and the perpetration of mass atrocities against the Iranian people,” he added.
The first reaction from the government emerged through the Italian Ministry of Defense, according to which the statements by Mark Rutte are misleading, since Rome only authorized the use of American bases in Italy for routine operations during the war with Iran, and not for offensive combat missions.
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“It is surprising that the Secretary General of NATO, who has nothing to do with ‘Operation Epic Fury’, presents an account that conveys a completely misleading message by confusing the types of flights authorized. Only technical and logistical, non-kinetic activities were authorized under the procedures established by existing agreements. Whenever a request was presented outside this scope, as is common knowledge, Italy did not grant authorization,” the Ministry of Defense guaranteed in a statement.
During the military campaign against Iran, the Italian government indicated that it would allow the United States to use its bases for normal operations and logistical flights, in compliance with a bilateral treaty, but refused, in March, authorization for bombers to use the Sigonella air base in Sicily.
The revelation by Mark Rutte sparked reactions among the opposition parties in Italy, who demand “immediate clarifications” from the far-right government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
