Iran's security chief Rezaei threatens US bases in Europe used to strike Iran

Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, warned that Iran would attack American military bases in Europe if aircraft took off from them to carry out strikes on Iranian territory, according to a report by Asaf Rosenzweig on the Telegram news channel of N12, the Israeli television news outlet. N12 updated its wording several times within minutes, settling on a version that named Rezaei and his position and framed the threat as applying to US bases on European soil.

The Hebrew-language Telegram channel Abu Ali Express, which tracks Arabic and Iranian media, carried a longer list of statements attributed to Rezaei. According to Abu Ali Express, he said that if the United States attacked a site the channel rendered in Hebrew as "Pickaxe Mountain", Iran would not limit itself to striking nearby American bases but would also target distant ones. He was also quoted as saying Iran might strike some islands that, in his words, Americans believe are beyond the reach of Iranian missiles, and that any distant base from which American aircraft departed to attack Iran would itself be attacked.

Who Mohsen Rezaei is speaking for

The Supreme National Security Council is the body in Iran's system that coordinates defence, intelligence and foreign policy decisions on national security. Its secretary acts as a senior official voice on those questions, and statements from the post are generally read abroad as reflecting the thinking of the country's security establishment rather than the personal view of one politician. Both organisations that reported the remarks identified Rezaei by that title. Neither report said where or in what setting he spoke, whether in an interview, a speech or a written statement.

What is new in the threat

Iranian officials have long said that American forces stationed in the region around Iran would be targets if the United States attacked the country. The element that both reporting organisations highlighted is the extension of that warning to bases far from Iran. N12 described it explicitly as a threat to bases in Europe. The Abu Ali Express account does not use the word Europe in the portion published, speaking instead of remote or distant American bases and of islands, but the condition it describes is the same: a base becomes a target if planes leave it on their way to strike Iran.

The Abu Ali Express report also described the remarks as aimed both at the United States and at the countries that host American bases. That framing matters for European governments that allow US forces on their territory, since the warning ties their exposure to how the facilities on their soil are used.

Why Israeli outlets are following it

For Israeli readers, Iranian statements about possible US military action are closely watched because Israel regards Iran's nuclear and missile programmes as a central security threat, and any American strike on Iran would have direct consequences for Israel. Both outlets that reported Rezaei's comments are Israeli and published them in Hebrew on Telegram, which Israeli news organisations use to push out short updates before fuller articles are written.

The reference to "Pickaxe Mountain" in the Abu Ali Express account appears to point to a specific site in Iran that Rezaei treated as a possible American target. The report does not explain what the site is, and N12 did not mention it.

How the two accounts compare

The two organisations agree on the core of the statement: the speaker, his title, and the warning that bases used to launch strikes on Iran would be hit. They differ in scope. N12's posts concentrated solely on Europe. Abu Ali Express gave a broader set of conditions, covering distant bases generally, islands, and the named site, and its message as supplied to us breaks off mid-sentence, so further remarks may have been included that we have not seen. Neither outlet quoted the original Persian wording or linked to an Iranian source.

What the reports do not say

The reports do not say what prompted Rezaei's remarks, where he made them, or which specific European countries or bases he had in mind. They do not identify the islands he was quoted as referring to, or explain the site called "Pickaxe Mountain". No response from the United States, from European governments hosting American forces, or from Israel has been reported.