Top Commander Says NATO Not Mulling Intervention in Iran, Syria

NATO is not considering any involvement in Syria or Iran, the alliance's top commander in Europe said on Tuesday, after Russian claims that such plans were afoot.

"In terms of Syria, I can tell you from a NATO perspective, we are not conducting any planning, we are not doing any detailed analysis, we are simply monitoring the situation," Admiral James Stavridis, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told a panel discussion in Berlin.

"It seems to me that before NATO would even consider involvement, it would require United Nations action, Arab League action," the U.S. admiral said.

"I don't see that it's trending in that direction, so at the moment NATO's role is simply one of monitoring a situation that is close to the borders of the alliance."

Turning to Iran, he said NATO "is not as an organization focused on potential engagement in Iran at all".

Earlier this month, Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev claimed that NATO members and some Arab states, using lessons from Libya, "intend to turn the current interference with Syrian affairs into a direct military intervention".