VIENNA, October 1. /TASS/. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte seems to know nothing about Iran’s nuclear program, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based international organizations Mikhail Ulyanov said.

"This gentleman claims that he is the highest administrative authority in NATO. Judging by his comments, he has no knowledge about Iran’s nuclear programme. The level of professionalism or the lack of professionalism in the West is a real disaster," he wrote on X, commenting on Rutte’s statements at the Defense and Space Summit in Brussels that "Europe was not able to take out the nuclear capability of Iran."

He also called Iran "Europe’s backyard, expressing the view that Europe, not the United States, should have started the war with Tehran, and promising that Europe would be able to do so in the future.