Poland Refuses to Hand Over Patriot Missile System to the US

JAKARTA - Polish National Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed that his country would not hand over the Patriot missile defense system to the United States.

Previously, the Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported that the US asked Poland to move one of its two Patriot batteries to the Middle East.

"Our Patriot batteries are used to protect the airspace of Poland and the eastern flank of NATO. In this case there is no change, and we have no plans to move them anywhere!" Kosiniak-Kamysz said on the X platform, as reported by ANTARA from Sputnik, Wednesday, April 1.

He added that the United States understands the position.

"Our allies know and understand how important our mission here is. The security of Poland is our top priority," he said.

A similar thing was also voiced by Deputy Minister of Defense of Poland Cezary Tomczyk.

"The Polish Patriot system remains in Poland. The system has a task in the country, namely to protect Poland and the eastern flank of NATO," Tomczyk wrote on X.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched attacks on targets in Iran, including in Tehran, which caused damage and killed civilians.

Iran then retaliated by attacking Israeli territory and US military facilities in the Middle East.