ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Wednesday warned Gulf states against allowing the use of their territory as launching pads for attacks against the country, amid fresh strikes from the US against military sites along Iran’s southern coast, a move NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte defended as "absolutely necessary."
"The US terrorist army committed military aggression against several monitoring and surveillance centers on Iran's southern coast," Iran’s foreign ministry said in its second statement issued Wednesday, calling the attacks a "gross violation" of the ceasefire memorandum ending the recent war between Iran and Israel.
"Any cooperation in committing aggression against Iran constitutes complicity in the crime," the ministry said, adding that Iran's armed forces would defend the country's sovereignty under Article 51 of the UN Charter, warning that it would target the "source of aggression."
The attacks come as the 36th NATO Summit takes place in Ankara in which defense strategy and increased defense spending among member countries are key points. At the Ankara Summit, Rutte called the latest US strikes "absolutely necessary,” telling reporters that “Iran is violating the ceasefire," in defense of the US attacks.
In a separate incident, two military bases in the southern province, Dashti County and Choghadak, were also hit by "enemy projectiles" on Wednesday morning, the deputy security official of Bushehr province told semi-official Fars News Agency.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC) later said one of its members was killed in the attacks.
In its latest statement, Iran's foreign ministry accused Washington of repeatedly breaching the ceasefire agreement, citing the latest military strikes on Wednesday morning, the revocation of a US license allowing Iran to sell oil, and continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
The statement said the developments “have rendered important and fundamental parts of the Memorandum of Understanding on the End of the War ineffective.”
According to Reuters on Wednesday, the latest escalation came after three tankers were struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Washington to launch a new wave of strikes and revoke Iran's oil export license despite the fragile ceasefire
Rutte stated that there should be "no doubt" about the US's commitment to NATO while urging European allies and Canada to increase defense spending.
