Iran may target US bases in Europe if conflict lingers
Iran has looked at striking US military assets in south-east Europe if President Donald Trump launches a fresh offensive, insiders close to the Iranian government claimed. Tehran is also reportedly eyeing attacking critical communications in the Strait of Hormuz as its leadership prepares for another round of fighting.
Iranian forces have scouted potential US targets in Bulgaria, two local insiders told the Financial Times on Wednesday. The country agreed to host up to eight US aerial refuelling aircraft and 250 personnel at Bezmer Air Base last month, with the first tankers arriving at the end of July to support American operations in the Middle East.
«Should the US go too far, Iran will defend itself at any price, go beyond the region and hit Europe too,» the source said.
One of the insiders told the paper that Tehran has also considered targeting Cyprus following a drone strike on the British airbase Akrotiri in March. Iranian planners have also considered attacks on subsea fibre-optic cables running through the Strait of Hormuz.
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How far Iran goes would depend on Washington, the FT sources said. One official told the newspaper that Tehran was preparing options to widen the battlefield if Trump followed through on threats to target Iranian infrastructure, while another said there would be «no limits» to Iran’s response if it judged US action to be excessive.
Why Europe is entering Iran’s calculations
The warnings come as hopes for a resumption of diplomacy have faded. Last month, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps said it would treat any base used to attack Iranian territory as a legitimate target.
Tehran has also demonstrated it is willing to test the limits of its long-range weaponry. Earlier in the war the US accused Iran of firing missiles at the joint US-UK base in Diego Garcia, some 4,000km away, but none reached their target. Turkey said in March that NATO defences shot down Iranian ballistic missiles and the drone strike on RAF Akrotiri damaged a runway but caused no casualties.
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Western military analysts remain more cautious about Iran’s ability to deliver significant damage at those distances. Sidharth Kaushal of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) described the missile threat to Europe as «real, but limited», noting that longer-range strikes would face accuracy and payload constraints.
Kaushal suggested that «it would be more fruitful for them to work through proxies», including Shia militias in Iraq, Hizbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
