Why Iran is threatening Europe’s ‘strategically important’ southeast

Press quote (Aljazeera)
21 August 2026

According to Armida van Rij, a senior fellow at the Centre for European Reform, southeastern Europe could be seen as an attractive target.

“[The region] is the soft underbelly of Europe as it is strategically important, hosting a number of NATO bases and key supplies to Ukraine and being on the Black Sea”.