BRUSSELS, March 5 (Reuters) – NATO is vigilant about events in the Middle East and the shooting-down of a missile headed for Turkish airspace on Wednesday, but invoking Article Five is not on the table right now, the military alliance’s chief Mark Rutte told Reuters on Thursday.
“Nobody’s talking about Article Five,” Rutte said in an interview.
Turkey said NATO air defences destroyed an Iranian ballistic missile headed into Turkish airspace, marking the first time the alliance member has been drawn into the Middle East conflict and raising the possibility of a major expansion involving its bloc allies.
The alliance’s Article Five specifies that an attack on one of its members is an attack on all the others.
Rutte said NATO supports the United States in its strikes against Iran as the country was “close to becoming a threat to Europe as well.”
(Reporting by Andrew Gray; Writing by Inti Landauro; Editing by Makini Brice and Richard Lough)
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