EASTORA REPORT | For European governments hosting U.S. forces, refusing to join another war with Iran may not be enough. Tehran is warning that allowing American aircraft to depart for an attack could put a base on European soil in its sights.
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That was the message from Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an Al Mayadeen interview reported on November 11. If Washington attacks again, he said, Tehran would no longer confine its response to nearby U.S. bases or previously targeted facilities.
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“We may target some islands that they believe are beyond the reach of our missiles,” he warned. American bases in European countries could also be hit, he said, if aircraft used them to launch attacks on Iran. His warning puts host governments, not just Washington, in the path of the confrontation.
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Rezaei cast the wider target list as a deliberate shift in Iran’s military posture. He said Tehran had already loosened restrictions on its responses during the war and would go further if attacked again. He claimed Iran’s military capabilities had grown since the war began.
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He was just as dismissive of Washington’s political options. In his assessment, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer had the backing for a prolonged campaign. He said they were searching for an objective achievable in three to five days—and had found none.
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For all the talk of another attack, diplomacy remains stalled. Rezaei denied that Iran and the United States were negotiating, despite messages from mediators. Tehran, he said, was still waiting for a clear answer to seven conditions for ending the confrontation, and the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until those demands were met. Trump has recently played down the likelihood of renewed large-scale fighting while declining to accept Iran’s truce proposal.
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For countries hosting American forces, the issue is no longer only whether they join a war; it is whether they allow the U.S. to launch one from their territory. “We will consider any location from which American aircraft take off to be a threat to us,” he said.