TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of NATO, made a controversial statement on Monday by defending the United States' attack on Iran, stating that it's not a violation of international law.
The former Prime Minister of the Netherlands made the statement as he was about to welcome President Donald Trump and 31 NATO member countries for a summit on Tuesday, June 24, to Wednesday, June 25, which this time was orchestrated in support of keeping the U.S. in the military alliance.
The U.S. President said in March that he would not defend NATO allies who do not pay enough for their defense.
Rutte defended the attack on the Iranian nuclear site—which bypassed a United Nations Security Council resolution and, in the absence of a prior attack on the United States—after being asked twice whether the attack violated international law, similar to Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2022.
“My biggest fear would be for Iran to own and be able to use and deploy a nuclear weapon to be a stranglehold on Israel, on the whole region and other parts of the world,” Rutte claimed, as quoted by The Globe and Mail.
“This is a consistent position of NATO: Iran should not have its hands on a nuclear weapon,” he said. “I would not agree that this is against international law—what the U.S. did."
The conflict between Iran and the United States erupted after U.S. bomber aircraft dropped a 30,000-pound bomb on a bunker at the underground nuclear facility in Fordow on Saturday.
This attack escalated the situation where previously Israel attacked Iran unprovoked on June 13, 2025. Trump even floated the possibility of overthrowing the Iranian government.
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