General Alexus Hrynkiewicz, the commander-in-chief of NATO’s Joint Force Europe, said on 12 March that the North Atlantic Alliance had to send some air defence systems from Europe to the Middle East as part of a security boost because of the war against Iran.
According to CNN, Hrynkiewicz said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that he used “some of our European Command air defence assets to protect some of our NATO allies” in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
When asked if this meant that these air defence assets had been redeployed to the Middle East, Hrynkiewicz answered in the affirmative.
The joint United States-Israeli operation against Iran began on 28 February and resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a significant number of other senior Iranian regime officials.
Iran’s military has attacked with missiles and drones not only Israel or US military installations in the region, but also many of its regional neighbours, which Tehran considers allies of the United States.