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By Shane Croucher
Senior Editor
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Top Kremlin official Dmitry Medvedev lashed out at President Donald Trump over the Iran war, mocking his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and lashing out at NATO for its response.
Turkey, a NATO ally, said on Wednesday it shot down a ballistic missile from Iran that was heading toward its airspace. The Iranian military has denied firing a missile at Turkey.
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The incident threatened to spark another major escalation of the war in Iran, one that could have brought the full weight of the NATO defensive alliance into the already widening conflict.
Mark Rutte, secretary general of NATO, has said the invocation of the alliance's Article 5—which obliges members to come to each other's defense when under attack—was not in order over the "serious" incident involving Turkey.
"NATO’s nuts!" Medevdev, who is deputy to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the Kremlin's Security Council, and is himself a former president and prime minister of Russia, in a social media post on Thursday.
"First, the US kills Iran’s leader and starts a war in the Middle East. Next, NATO idiots led by Trump’s servile 'sonny' Rutte mull invoking Article 5.
"How about nominating POTUS for the Nobel Peace Prize for starting a major war, eh? Orwell was right: war is peace!"
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The Iranian regime was one of Russia's key allies. Russia has sharply criticized the U.S. and Israeli attacks and called for renewed diplomatic talks on the nuclear issue at the heart of the conflict.
NATO allies, including the U.K. and France, had said they would help to defend partners in the Middle East from Iranian attacks, and sent their own warships to the Middle East.
But they have so far declined to directly involve themselves in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
Rutte addressed the missile shot down by Turkey in an interview with Reuters on Thursday morning.
"We clearly condemn it," Rutte said, adding it was "very important" that a NATO air defense missile dealt with the threat because it showed "clear evidence" that "we will defend every inch of NATO territory".
"It was clearly a serious incident," Rutte said.
But he added: "Article 5 I think is not in order here, and nobody's talking about Article 5."
Elsewhere, NATO allies are supporting Ukraine with materiel, intelligence, and training as it fights off a full-scale Russian invasion for the fifth year running.
The U.S. is attempting to broker a peace agreement that ends Russia's war, but negotiations are stuck on territorial disputes.
NATO accuses Russia of insincerity in its stated desire for peace and wants to seize control of more Ukrainian territory by force.
The Kremlin accuses NATO's European allies of seeking to prolong the Ukraine war and damage Russia for their own strategic advantage.
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