NATO is considering whether to adopt the fight against the Islamic State in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris that French President Francois Hollande has called an “act of war.”
“We have potentials in the treaty that have not been used yet but might be used soon,” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told a conference of the European Defense Agency on Monday.
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She was referring to Article 4 and Article 5 of the 1949 treaty that established the NATO alliance. Article 5 obligates all members to come to the defense of a member state if it’s attacked, while Article 4 requires only consultations when a member is threatened.
The only time Article 5 has been invoked was by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That formed the legal basis for NATO’s command of military operations in Afghanistan over the past 14 years.
Turkey has asked for Article 4 consultations in the wake of the rise of the Islamic State in Syria since 2014.
French authorities have not made a formal request for NATO involvement, but several U.S. lawmakers said they hoped the alliance would get into the fight.
“Maybe we’ll put together a coalition that can, for once, attack this horrific terrorist element before they have the ability to carry out another coordinated attack like this,” Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., told CBS News on Sunday.
Presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio sounded a similar tone on ABC when he said “This is clearly an act of war, an attack on one of our NATO allies, and we should invoke Article 5 of the NATO agreement and bring everyone together to put together a coalition to confront this challenge.”
Immediately following Mogherini’s speech, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg did not broach usage of Article 5, and instead spoke on ways the EU and NATO can do a better job working together.
He did, however, say that the Paris attacks “represent an attack on our core values of freedom, democracy and human rights.”
“Such attacks are meant to terrify, to scare us, but they will only strengthen our resolve,” Stoltenberg said.
