On Friday, Iran attempted a ballistic strike on the British Overseas Territory of the Chagos Islands, likely targeting the UK-U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia. The strike demonstrated that Tehran the capability of using missiles to strike Berlin, London, and Paris.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran’s newly demonstrated missile range means that European powers no longer have the luxury of staying outside of the conflict. “They fired an intercontinental ballistic missile on Diego Garcia. They now have the capacity to reach deep into Europe,” Netanyahu said.
While Iranian missiles have previously been capped at around 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometres), the Chagos Islands are approximately 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) from Iran. The potential for Iranian missiles to travel such a length has raised alarm bells in regions once believed to have been out of the strike zone for the mullahs. Missiles with a range of 4,000 km pose a danger to dozens of countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. Therefore, European powers cannot afford to sit on the sidelines of the conflict.