By Dov Lieber
Iran's danger to Europe has gone from theoretical to real, said a weapons expert in London. Tehran's missile attack on Diego Garcia, a U.S.-U.K. military base roughly as far from Iran as London and Paris are, shifts the threat of Iran's missile arsenal from hypothetical to actual, said Douglas Barrie, a specialist in military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
While Iran hasn't declared the missile attack was intended as a message to Europe, some European governments are likely to make that conclusion, he said. "It might be seen as demonstrative, at least in some European capitals," Barrie said.
The threat from Iran will increase pressure on Europe to improve its ballistic missile defenses, a trend already under way following the Russian attacks on Ukraine, he said.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 21, 2026 07:29 ET (11:29 GMT)
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