RT | October 1, 2026
European NATO members should have been able to attack Iran instead of relying on the US and Israel, according to Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the head of the self-described defensive alliance.
Iran has been attacked twice in two years, both times over allegations that it seeks to develop nuclear weapons, which Tehran rejects as false. Speaking at the Euronews Defence & Space Summit on Friday, Rutte endorsed the idea that European nations should acquire the military capabilities needed to carry out such wars of aggression themselves.
In the future, “the Europeans will be able to take care of their backyard themselves. It should be us doing this, not the Americans,” he said.
“Europe was not able to take out the nuclear capability of Iran. We couldn’t. We didn’t have the capabilities. In 10 years, we can and we should,” he added, referring to multi-billion euro rearmament efforts now underway in European members of the military bloc.
Earlier in the day, the NATO chief dismissed Russian concerns over hostile rhetoric by some members of the bloc regarding the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Region.
“Basically what we said is, ‘hey, listen, we are a defensive alliance, and stop the nuclear threat’,” he told journalists when asked about a formal warning Moscow had sent to Brussels.
Russia cited remarks by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who proposed in September deploying additional troops near the Russian border so that Moscow would be “uncertain of what we will do.” Moscow said it would use its “entire available arsenal” to defend Russian territory from a possible attack by NATO states.
NATO was created in the early years of the Cold War, ensuring a continued US military presence in Western Europe. The Soviet Union later established its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, which no longer exists.
While NATO describes itself as a defensive alliance, it has carried out military attacks against other countries, including the UK- and French-led 2011 intervention in Libya, after which the North African state was balkanized.
Russia considers NATO’s eastward expansion since the end of the Cold War a major national security threat and has cited it as one of the principal causes of the Ukraine conflict.
Rutte’s argument in support of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran echoed remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said in June 2025 that the Israelis were doing “[the] dirty work for us.”
The joint sitting of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday, 30th September, had been convened specifically to consider Mureșan’s programme and proposed Cabinet.
His government received 182 votes in favour and 15 against. It required at least 233 votes to take office.
Of Romania’s 464 MPs and senators, 321 were present and 197 valid votes were cast. PSD legislators attended but did not vote, while AUR members were absent from the chamber, according to the official result reported by Romania’s national news agency.
The result extends a crisis that has occupied Romanian politics for much of the year.
President Dan had nominated Mureșan after previous attempts to establish a stable government failed. Mureșan’s proposed coalition brought together the centre-right National Liberal Party, PNL, the Save Romania Union, USR, and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania, UDMR.
Without support from the Social Democratic Party, PSD, that combination did not have the parliamentary numbers needed for investiture.
After the vote, Mureșan said his three-party grouping had presented a programme intended to end the crisis and accused the parties responsible for bringing down the previous administration of prolonging the instability.
The political breakdown began after the government of Ilie Bolojan lost a no-confidence vote in May.
Months before its collapse, EU Today had examined the growing strains inside Romania’s governing coalition, including disputes over fiscal consolidation and the position of Bolojan.
The subsequent search for a replacement has produced repeated nominations without restoring a stable majority. In June, President Dan turned to Adrian Veștea after an earlier nominee withdrew, while another confidence-vote attempt exposed the same underlying parliamentary arithmetic.
Mureșan was the latest effort to break the impasse.
The president must now decide whether another candidate has a realistic prospect of assembling the necessary 233 votes.
Romanian constitutional procedures also raise the possibility of early elections if repeated attempts to form a government fail. A review of the procedure following Wednesday’s vote notes that the president can make another nomination and that dissolution of parliament can become an option under the constitutional conditions governing failed investiture attempts.
Dan has previously warned against rushing towards another election, arguing that it could extend political uncertainty rather than resolve it.
The crisis is unfolding while Romania faces substantial fiscal pressure.
Successive governments have been required to address one of the largest budget deficits in the European Union while delivering reforms connected to EU funding and maintaining investment.
A prolonged period under an administration without a full parliamentary mandate would reduce the political room available for unpopular fiscal decisions.
Romania’s strategic position also gives the domestic crisis a wider European dimension.
The country sits on NATO’s south-eastern flank, shares a border with Ukraine and hosts allied military infrastructure. The Black Sea and Danube corridor have become increasingly important for European security and trade since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure close to Romanian territory have repeatedly forced Bucharest to respond to drones approaching or entering Romanian airspace. The security pressure was highlighted earlier this year when President Dan addressed the threat posed by Russian drone activity around the Danube.
Foreign and defence policy has therefore remained an important consideration during the government crisis.
Dan has stressed that Romania’s pro-Western orientation will continue despite the domestic deadlock.
The most immediate political question now concerns the PSD.
Party leader Sorin Grindeanu said after the vote that Romania urgently needed a government with full powers and that his party was prepared to assume responsibility for the country’s recovery.
Any new government able to command a reliable majority may therefore require either direct PSD participation or an arrangement under which Social Democrat MPs provide parliamentary support.
The alternative would be another attempt to construct a majority without them — something the past several months have shown to be difficult.
Wednesday’s result has not changed the parliamentary numbers. It has simply returned the decision to the Cotroceni Palace.
President Dan must now determine whether another coalition can be built from the existing parliament or whether Romania is moving closer to an early election.
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