The EU has continued its military build-up in the Mediterranean after Iran threatened to strike any European nations seen helping the US-Israeli attack.

Germany said on Sunday (8 March) it was sending a frigate to join French, Dutch, Greek, Italian, and Spanish warships already in or en route to the area, as well as Italian, Greek, and British warplanes and air-defence systems being sent there.

French president Emmanuel Macron and Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will both travel to Cyprus on Monday to coordinate military defence operations and repatriation efforts.

The rising tensions saw deputy foreign minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi tell the France 24 broadcaster on Friday: “We have already informed the Europeans and everybody else that they should be careful not to be involved in this war of aggression against Iran”.

“If they help, I’m not trying to name any country, but if any country joins in the aggression against Iran, joins America and Israel in the aggression against Iran, definitely they will be also the legitimate targets for Iranian retaliation,” he said.

Iran has already fired at least three drones and two ballistic missiles at a UK military base in Cyprus, while its rockets could also reach south-east EU cities and Nato bases in the Western Balkans.

And a bomb blast at the US embassy in Oslo on Sunday highlighted fears of Iran-aligned militant cells inside Europe, who might wage asymmetrical assaults.

“It’s natural to see this in the context of the current security situation and that ​this could be an attack deliberately targeting the US embassy,” said Norwegian police spokesman Frode Larsen.

Greece, Portugal, and the UK have let the US military use their bases, while Spain refused, prompting the White House to threaten Spain with a trade embargo.

Meanwhile, Iranian fire killed two civilians in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, while the UAE intercepted 16 missiles and 113 drones the same day, in a show of Tehran’s capabilities.

Iran has fired 1,422 drones at the UAE since the US unilaterally started the war on 28 February, 80 of which have gotten through so far to Emirati cities, prompting most tourist to flee Dubai and for Western expats living there to start making evacuation plans.

It has also fired 656 missiles at drones at Kuwait, killing five people.

“I will fly if the airports are open, or drive to Riyadh if need be,” an EUobserver contact in Dubai said.

EU military build-up near Cyprus

Meanwhile, the EU military build-up near Cyprus has prompted Turkey to say it was sending F-16 warplanes to the disputed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, in what could lead to rising tensions among Nato allies in the Eastern Mediterranean as a side-effect of the Middle East crisis.

But US president Donald Trump told the ABC broadcaster on Sunday he might send in ground troops to force regime change in Iran, auguring a drawn-out conflict.

“Everything is on the table. Everything … We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me [in the White House],” said Trump.

Israel has also killed almost 400 people in Lebanon this week in the multi-front war, as well as continuing violence in Gaza and the West Bank and keeping most crossings into Gaza closed, despite desperate need for aid and medical evacuations.

Just 301 people out of 20,000 or so in need of medical evacuation made it out of the Rafah crossing between 2 February when it briefly reopened and 27 February, when Israel shut it again, the EU foreign service, which helps monitor Rafah, told EUobserver.