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NATO Chief Says Israel to Receive No Military Aid From Bloc, If Iran Attacks

BERLIN (Sputnik) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with German magazine Spiegel that the military alliance would not provide help for Israel in case of a potential attack from Iran.
Sputnik

Israel is NATO's partner but since it is not a member of the alliance the Article 5 (Collective defense) is not applicable, Stoltenberg told the magazine.

The NATO chief stressed that the alliance had never taken part in the Middle East Peace Process and it wasn't NATO's task.

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Israeli relations with Iran are strained over Tehran's curtailed nuclear program, which Israel claims still exists, hostile rhetoric and support for the Syrian government and Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which battled Israel during the country’s successive wars with Lebanon. Israeli officials have repeatedly said that Israel would not allow Iran to turn Syria, which has been engulfed in a civil war since 2011, into its military foothold.

On May 10, the Israeli Air Force hit dozens of Iranian targets in Syria after Iranian forces allegedly fired 20 rockets at the Israeli Defense Forces' positions in Golan Heights, which is under Israeli administration.

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