NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said European countries should develop the military capabilities to carry out operations like the recent US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities within a decade.

Speaking at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit in Brussels, Rutte said only the United States had been capable of significantly degrading Iran’s nuclear capabilities through military action.

“Why are the Americans doing it, taking out the Iranian nuclear capability? Because we can’t,” he said, according to reports of his remarks. He added that Europe should strengthen its defence so that “it should be us doing it, not the Americans” in the future.

Rutte said the rearmament efforts underway in European NATO members should, over ten years, give the continent the ability to handle security in its own neighbourhood, including threats from Iran and in the Red Sea.

He called the US strikes on Iran “absolutely essential” and described Iran’s nuclear programme as a potential threat to Israel, the Middle East and Europe.

Rutte has previously argued that NATO should become less dependent on US capabilities while keeping the transatlantic relationship strong.