Iran possesses ballistic missiles capable of striking all the countries of Europe, except Portugal.
This is the chilling message repeated today from various quarters – and seemingly being used by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exhort European leaders to join the United States and Israel in the escalating war against Iran.
For some, the message will evoke memories of the campaign alerting to Iraq’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (that were also about to be used against the West, with devastating consequences – only they were eventually discovered not to exist…)
For others, it will stand as a reason to do exactly what the United States and Israel have been encouraging ‘allies’ to do.
For Portugal, this will be a ‘difficult moment’, almost certainly left to European partners to decide the ‘next course of action’.
The narrative started building after reports last Friday that Iranian forces had tried to hit the British naval base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean – more than 4,000 kms from Iran.
Analysing the alleged data, Ukrainian website Defense Express concluded that Iran must possess missiles with the capacity to hit “all countries in Europe, with the exception of Portugal”.
According to Notícias ao Minuto today: “It was already known that Iran possesses a vast arsenal of domestically developed ballistic missiles, including the Shahab-3, which has a range of 2,000 kilometres. However, as early as October last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already stated that the country was “developing intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 8,000 kilometres”, something Iran dismissed as an “imaginary threat”.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal – citing various U.S. authorities – carried the story about Iran sending two missiles in the direction of Diego Garcia. Neither reached their apparent target. One ‘presented a defect during flight’, and the other was intercepted by a missile fired from a north American warship.
According to the WSJ report, this was Iran’s “first operational use of intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs)” in an attempt to strike a target outside the Middle East.
As Defence Express has analysed, the shortest distance the missile would have to travel from Iran to the Diego Garcia base is approximately 4,000 kilometres, ergo “Iran has the capability to strike targets at least 4,000 kilometres away and, all things considered, the only country in Europe that is safe is Portugal, albeit most of the United Kingdom, Spain and part of France are also safe.”
This analysis is now being repeated, with maps and experts all seemingly on board and appearing to accept the United States/Israeli version of this incident – when it possibly should be remembered that both countries have, up until now, been fairly ambivalent about sticking to the truth.
Equally, Iran has denied the story, and according to some news outlets “UK officials have not provided any details about it”, either.
As for Defense Express, it has dialed down a little on its message, stressing that the “likelihood of Iran launching ballistic missiles at Europe remains a matter of debate (…) At the same time, there has already been an incident in which a Shahed drone — though not launched from Iran — struck a hangar housing U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in Cyprus.”
Bottom line, Iran has previously threatened Europe with retaliatory strikes if Europe supports the United States and Israel in efforts to destroy Iran’s military capabilities.
All this has seen Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warn that Iran now has the capacity “to reach deep into Europe” – meaning that the threat posed by Iran goes beyond the region of the Middle East, making the war a battle “for the security of the entire world”.
Source: Notícias ao Minuto/ Defense Express/ Iranintl.com/x.com
