US and Iranian officials have stepped up their verbal tirades against one another in the wake of last week's downed drone incident, with President Trump accusing Iranian leaders of being “not smart” and Iran's president calling the US's ‘hostile' behaviour signs of the White House's ‘mental retardation.'
French Defence Minister Florence Parly asked US Acting Secretary of Defence Mark Esper not to drag the NATO alliance into any possible military operation in the Gulf during the meeting of bloc's defence ministers on Thursday, diplomats familiar with the discussions have said, according to Reuters.
According to the diplomats, Parly made the remarks during a closed-door meeting that was also attended by the representatives of five other NATO members. German representatives also joined the French in calling for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal to be upheld, and not ‘jeopardised'.
Esper, it was said, told NATO allies that the US did not seek a conflict with Tehran, but would ‘not tolerate' any further incidents following last week's shootdown of a $130 million drone by an Iranian missile.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that the US ‘clearly conveyed' to its allies that it did not want to see war break out with Iran.
Alliance defence ministers are holding the second day of meetings at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, with the talks discussing a range of issues including Iran, the scrapping of…
