Iran formally rejects NATO summit declaration as 'baseless and politically motivated'

On July 9, 2026, the Iranian Embassy in Ankara issued a formal written protest against the NATO Ankara Summit Declaration, rejecting its passages on Iran's nuclear program and freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz as "baseless and politically motivated" . The statement declared flatly that "NATO cannot teach Iran a lesson or dictate policy on regional peace and security" .

What Iran's protest said

Iran's statement made four main arguments :

• Nuclear program: Iran insisted its nuclear activities are exclusively peaceful and that, as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear weapons have no place in its defense doctrine.
• Maritime security: Iran claimed it plays a responsible role in preserving security in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, adding that "the main source of insecurity in the region is not Iran, but the illegal military interventions, provocative actions, and destabilizing policies of extra-regional actors."
• Collapsed diplomacy: The statement pointedly accused the US and Israel of choosing aggression over negotiation: "It was not Iran that bombed the negotiation table and chose aggression over diplomacy; it was the US and the Israeli terror regime."
• NATO complicity: Iran charged that NATO, which it accused of supporting and facilitating acts of aggression against Iran, has no credibility and exposes "the alliance's double standards."

What the NATO declaration actually said

The Ankara Summit Declaration, adopted July 8, 2026, included a specific Iran passage in paragraph 5: . This language was finalized at the ambassador level before the summit and represented a unified stance by all 32 NATO allies .