NATO is prepared to address any threat and will always do what is necessary to defend all allies, a NATO official said on Wednesday in response to questions about a report in the Financial Times that Iran has allegedly weighed attacking US military targets in Europe should Donald Trump escalate the war. “As demonstrated earlier this year when NATO air defenses successfully intercepted ballistic missiles heading to Turkiye from Iran on four separate occasions, our deterrence and defense posture is strong and effective,” the official said. Citing two regime insiders, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that Iran has been weighing ways to broaden the confrontation beyond the Middle East if Washington intensifies military action. One regime insider said Iran was preparing options to expand the conflict if Trump followed through on previous threats to attack Iranian infrastructure. Another said Tehran would place “no limits” on its response. Iranian forces had assessed possible strikes against US assets in southeastern Europe, including Bulgaria, which approved the use of Bezmer Air Base by US refueling aircraft last month, the sources said. Cyprus, where a British air base was hit by a drone in March, was also identified as a potential target for retaliation against a renewed US offensive, according to one of the sources. Iran’s forces had separately examined attacks on subsea fiber-optic cables in the Strait of Hormuz if the conflict intensified, according to the report. The sources described last month’s strike on a US base in Jordan, which killed three American service members, as Tehran’s most accurate long-range attack to date and evidence of its ability to hit targets farther afield. “This was also a message to Europe: it can receive missiles, so it should know where it should stand in this war,” a first insider said. “A very big mistake, such as hitting our infrastructure, could make the war go beyond the region and reach Europe.” Iranian Threats Chief of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, Major General Ali Abdollahi, warned on Wednesday that any form of assistance to the US military will be interpreted by Tehran as active “complicity” with American forces. In a statement posted on X, Abdollahi pointed to a rising concentration of US military aircraft across regional installations, saying, “It is improbable that this volume of military aircraft, particularly aerial refueling tankers, is operating out of regional bases without the awareness of host nations.” He said Tehran will view any form of “assistance or facilitation” provided to the US military as direct military cooperation with American forces. Also on Wednesday, Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, emphasized that any country that hands its destiny over to foreigners will pay a heavy price. He noted that today’s Iran determines its own future, with the nation refusing to retreat under pressure and standing firmer in the face of compulsion and threats. Gharibabadi’s threats came after Bulgaria’s Parliament backed a government proposal to allow the US military to use an air base in the Balkan country to support US operations in the Middle East, while some expressed concern about becoming involved in the Iran war. Legislators in Bulgaria voted to allow up to eight US KC-135 refueling aircraft along with 250 personnel and supporting equipment at Bezmer Air Base to Oct. 1. Later, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged Bulgaria to reconsider its decision to allow the temporary deployment of US military aircraft at the Bezmer air base, Iranian state media reported. During a phone call last month with his Bulgarian counterpart, Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Araghchi said Sofia's approval of a US request to station military aircraft at the base to support military operations amounted to facilitating aggression against Iran, adding the move was unacceptable and contrary to the traditionally friendly relations between the two countries. Ahead of the FT report, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday that Iran will shift to a “fully offensive” military posture because efforts to negotiate a permanent end to the war with the US have stalled. “Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ready to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions,” the Iranian official said, adding that Tehran would conduct a “timely and precise” military attack to break the US naval blockade if diplomacy failed. Iran’s Medium-Range Missiles Military analysts told the FT that Iran could deploy medium-range ballistic missiles against US assets in southern and southeastern Europe, such as its Shahab series. However, they said such missiles would likely struggle to cause significant damage at greater distances. The scale of any Iranian retaliation would depend on Washington’s next moves. The analysts said heavier-duty missiles could also be deployed, but would have to carry a lighter payload to travel far enough — meaning damage would be minimal. Douglas Barrie of the International Institute for Strategic Studies noted that earlier Iranian attempts against Diego Garcia indicated weapons exceeding 2,000 kilometers in range, making European contingencies more concrete, while unsuccessful outcomes exposed reliability, interception, and precision limitations. In the weeks after the US and Israel launched the war in February, Washington accused Tehran of firing multiple missiles at Diego Garcia, the joint US-British military base in the Indian Ocean roughly 4,000 kilometers away. None of the missiles reached their target. In March, Türkiye said NATO air defenses had intercepted several ballistic missiles launched from Iran. That same month, the British base at Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by a drone. Western officials assessed at the time that it was most likely an Iranian unmanned aircraft used by forces aligned with Tehran, rather than a direct strike by Iran itself. And while reports said Iran will shift to a “fully offensive” military posture, Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has issued decrees appointing six military and IRGC officials to leadership positions. He named Ahmad Vahidi as head of the IRGC, and Hossein Taeb as commander of the IRGC's Basij paramilitary. The appointments came after the preceding holders were killed in Israeli-US strikes during operations Roaring Lion and Epic Fury. Yadollah Javani, the IRGC’s deputy for political affairs, told Iranian state television that Iran’s military actions had so far been defensive because its adversaries had started the war, but could become offensive in the future. He said the armed forces would adopt new approaches following recent appointments and directives from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and warned Iran’s adversaries to expect what he described as strategic surprises. The threats reflect the mood inside Tehran, where a growing number of regime figures now see a resumption of hostilities as a matter of timing rather than likelihood. At the same time, some within the Iranian regime are concerned that Tehran may be overplaying its hand. Many hardliners, however, believe the United States cannot be trusted to honor any agreement and argue that Iran must raise the cost for Washington to ensure it upholds its commitments under any eventual deal. Among them is Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards, whom Khamenei placed last week in the top post of the country’s security apparatus. Iranian analysts interpreted the move as a sign that figures such as Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator, have for now been sidelined, as prospects for a lasting agreement appear increasingly slim. The second source said Iran was signaling that failure to reach an agreement with Ghalibaf would leave the West dealing with Rezaei instead, and summed up Tehran’s broader message as a warning that Washington should not push too far, since Iran was prepared to go further still.
