Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians on Monday that there was nowhere in the Middle East beyond Israel's reach, three days after Israel's military killed the leader of Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Netanyahu, speaking in English in a 3-minute-long video released by his office in which he said he was addressing the Iranian people, blamed the Iranian government for plunging the Middle East "deeper into war" at the cost of its own people.
"There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," Netanyahu said.
He said the Iranian government was bringing Iranians "closer to the abyss". Iran and Israel would be at peace when Iran is "finally free", which he said would "come a lot sooner than people think".
Referring to Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, killed on Friday in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, Netanyahu said that "puppets" of the Iranian "regime" were eliminated every day.
Israel has ramped up attacks on militant targets in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the best armed of militant groups across the Middle East aligned with Iran.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
15 Comments
Tim Sullivan
Why can't we have a real leader like Netanyahu? Everyone else looks like a wimp in comparison.
smithinjapan
Imagine if Putin said the same thing. Would we also just sigh but then give him carte blanche and all our money to do with as he pleases, MAYBE asking him to pretty please show restraint?
K3PO
No doubt, the Israeli intelligence is extremely capable, and has decapitated Hamas and Hezbollah.
But the looming fear is the slow, steady progress of nuclear weapon development by Iran and it's pariah relationship with Russia.
All these actors are pulling the Middle East into the abyss.
Fighto!
The mullahs controlling Iran are mad, but probably not insane.
Israel is also capable of playing the game of Mutually Assured Destruction.
Thunderbird2
How to gain votes in a country where nationalism is at the heart of everything... wage a bloody war with your neighbours... Netanyahu is no better than Putin... both are monsters...
kurisupisu
If Israel invades Iran then there will be hell on earth…
Zaphod
He tries to project strength, but that does not impress the Iranian mullahs, as they need the jihad agaist Israel because it puts the Shia-Sunni conflict on ice and gives them power in the Sunni world.
Tim Sullivan
If Israel invades Iran then there will be hell on earth…
No need for that. Israel has nuclear weapons.
Fos
It is unbelievable the hypocrisy of this evil man, accusing Iran of the ongoing war, and the deceit and duplicity of the Us administration which keeps sending weapons to Tel Aviv . Billions of dollars to support the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the invasion in Lebanon.
Any other country doing what Israel is doing would be accused of being a dangerous terrorist and then CIA in Washington would find a way for a coup in no time. We have seen it many times. But because of the money circulating in Wall Street right now (the top 5 weapons manufacturers are all Americans, see Blackrock, Vanguard, Fidelity, the same usual immoral and vicious suspects), the world continues as normal. And Japan talks about Ohtani records. What a planet we leave in…
Peter Neil
it all goes back to the invasion of iraq and toppling of saddam hussein, who kept iran in check. bush and blair allowed iran to spread its influence and weapons throughout the middle east.
RichardPearce
Netanyahu's military capabilities are mainly borrowed/given by the same people who gave Saddam Hussein his, Iran's have been developed and built domestically.
Despite the steady stream of 'Iran experts' who say what others think Iranians feel, Iranpoll, which asks Iranians what they think keeps getting the results you'd only expect to see from a democracy.
Iran is such a pariah that, when it sends out a 'freedom of navigation/show the flag' patrol, the US orders countries to refuse it access to their ports on three continents, and the countries welcome Iran in.
Iran didn't send troops to help countries facing ISIS, it did, however, send weapons and advisors and the countries beat ISIS except where America provided shelter.
Iran didn't send troops or weapons to Yemen to help prodemocracy forces keep their country in the face of attack by American backed Antidemocracies in the ME. The 'Yemen Houthi rebels' retain the support of the majority of Yemens and control over almost all of Yemen.
Iran has announced that it isn't going to send troops to Lebanon either. Netanyahu should be worried, but he has the same flaw as everyone in history who believed that the power to kill people is the key to power, arrogant ignorance
Nibek32
Netanyahu, Xi, Putin, Trump, all dictators that make the world an awful place to live in.
kurisupisu
Tim SullivanToday 06:12 pm JST
If Israel invades Iran then there will be hell on earth…
No need for that. Israel has nuclear weapons.
….
My counter to that is
Iran might have several itself…
Tim Sullivan
My counter to that is
Iran might have several itself…
Who knows? A nuclear war that starts in the Middle East would be Biden's ultimate legacy. Thanks Joe!
Sanjinosebleed
Half the UN walked out on this war criminals speech in disgust but as his benefactor the US keeps giving him bombs and carte Blanche to kill women and children he will keep going and telling his lies like they are truths!