There are two reasons: Levchenko explains why NATO countries helped Israel shoot down rockets but are afraid of being drawn into the war in Ukraine

NATO countries helped Israel shoot down the missiles, but they are afraid of being drawn into a war in Ukraine for two reasons. One is fear and the other is that Russia has nuclear weapons.

This opinion was shared in a commentary to OBOZ.UA by military and political observer Ihor Levchenko. "They (Western countries – ed.) are afraid because, firstly, it is close to them, closer than Iran, because Iran is far away. Secondly, because Russia has nuclear weapons," he said, answering a related question.

As for why partners help Israel immediately, unlike helping Ukrainians, the expert explained that it is a matter of political will and political readiness.

Ihor Levchenko added that from the very beginning, our Western partners stated that they would not personally take part in hostilities against Russia in any way, and they did not give such guarantees to Iran either.

"There are such different aspects here. For example, on a purely technical level, Iranian drone missiles launched from Iran's territory were flying through the airspace of other third countries, such as Iraq. We know that the United States has been closely associated with Iraq for several decades, has conducted military campaigns there, has kept large contingents there, and, in principle, has the appropriate forces and means there. So, let's just say, if we take some technical side, they may be responsible for the security of Iraqi airspace in a certain way," he explained.

The expert also clarified that as part of ensuring this airspace security, third countries simply destroyed the air forces that were in their airspace.

"That's all. The logic here may be as follows. No one, for example, flew into Israeli airspace from third countries, or even into Iranian airspace, let alone into Iranian airspace. That is, as far as I understand, all these actions took place in Iraqi airspace. The United States is, so to speak, in some way involved in the security situation in Iraq and its partners, because not only were the Americans there, but the coalition forces were there, so to speak. The same British were initially involved with the Americans in the operation against Saddam Hussein back in 2001. So, so to speak, this is a slightly different story. We want American and British planes to fly into Ukrainian airspace and shoot down Russian missiles. The allies said that they would not do this from the very beginning, even at the initial stage, when our air defense situation and the effectiveness of destroying Russian missiles was, let's say, not very good. They made it clear to us that no one will take part in this war, even with a limited air contingent," he summarized.

As OBOZ.UA reported, on the night of April 14, Iran fired about 200 drones and more than a hundred missiles at Israel. According to the Israeli military, none of the targets reached the country's airspace – all were intercepted, including by allies.

Israel promised a response to Iran and called the attack a declaration of war. For its part, Iran told the UN that it was a response to the aggression of the "Zionist regime" against Iranian diplomatic missions in Damascus, and Tehran's military actions were allegedly carried out in accordance with the UN Charter "in legitimate defense."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as a number of leaders, condemned Iran's aggression, emphasizing that neither the Middle East nor the world "can afford another war."

U.S. President Joe Biden convened consultations in the G7 on how to respond to the attack, and Italy also called for an urgent meeting of the Group of Seven.

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