NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte stated on March 22–23, 2026, that NATO “cannot confirm” Israel’s claim that Iran fired intercontinental or long-range ballistic missiles at the joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. He said the alliance is still assessing the situation.
- Israel publicly claimed Iran launched long-range missiles (possibly ICBMs) toward Diego Garcia.
- Iran strongly denies any involvement, calling it an “Israeli false flag” operation and disinformation.
- UK officials (including Defence Secretary John Healey) have stated that Iran targeted Diego Garcia with two missiles, but the attack failed — one reportedly fell short and the other was intercepted or failed in flight.
- NATO has not confirmed that the missiles were Iranian or that Iran was responsible. Rutte explicitly said they are still looking into it.
- No credible reporting from major outlets (Al Jazeera, Reuters, CNN, WSJ, AP, etc.) supports the claim that Israel fired the missiles. The dominant narrative from Western and regional sources attributes the launch attempt to Iran, even if the missiles did not hit the base.
- The incident is part of the ongoing escalation between Iran, Israel, and the US following US-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets.
In short: NATO did not confirm that “Iran did NOT fire the missiles” nor that “Israel did.” NATO has only said they cannot yet confirm Israel’s attribution to Iran. Iran denies it entirely and accuses Israel of staging a false flag.
This remains a fast-moving, high-disinformation situation with conflicting claims from all sides. No independent verification has publicly proven who actually launched the projectiles (or if any were launched at all). Claims of a definitive “Israel did it” reversal are currently unsubstantiated.
If you have a specific source or post making that exact claim, feel free to share it and I’ll examine it directly. Always best to wait for forensic or intelligence confirmation in fog-of-war missile incidents.
