NATO secretary general calls U.S. airstrikes on Iran justified
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that the nighttime U.S. strikes on Iran were justified.
"I believe that this was absolutely necessary. Because when there is a ceasefire agreement, and Iran essentially violates it - we saw what happened yesterday with the attacks on ships - it is critically important for the U.S. to respond harshly," he told journalists in Ankara, where the NATO summit is taking place.
In the night of July 8, U.S. armed forces carried out a series of strikes on targets in Iran. The U.S. Central Command CENTCOM called the strikes a response to Iran's attacks on three commercial vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) stated that Iranian naval and air forces conducted a joint operation using ballistic missiles and drones to strike 85 targets at U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf region, according to state media.
The IRGC claims that the strikes, in particular, were carried out on the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet base in Bahrain and Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait. The operation is described as a response to U.S. airstrikes on Wednesday on coastal bases and non-military facilities in Iran's southern Hormozgan province, located on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, and in the city of Bandar Mahshahr in the west of the country.
Source: Interfax
