In a post on his X account on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Mark Rutte’s repeated acknowledgments of Europe’s support for the US-Israeli military campaign demonstrated that European countries were not impartial actors in an unlawful act of aggression.

“Mark Rutte’s repeated admissions of Europe’s willful complicity in the US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran only confirms, once again, that they were not impartial in this brutal unlawful aggression. Those who provided their territories, military bases, and infrastructure to enable the aggression cannot evade responsibility for their contribution to an unprovoked aggression and its grave consequences,” the Iranian spokesperson said.

“Yet NATO secretary general's relentless self-congratulation for serving an illegal war of choice does not reflect strength — it exposes the servile mindset of a fawning courtier who fancies that flattery can erase a king’s contempt. In Washington’s eyes, an ineffective Organization cannot be rendered effective through sycophancy — nor can such manipulative flattery ever restore the flatterer’s own self-respect and personal integrity,” Baqaei added.