(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to attack Iran in response to terror attacks on Israel’s soil.
“Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck. We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act, if necessary, not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself,” Netanyahu said Sunday, addressing the Munich Security Conference.
Netanyahu waved a piece of an Iranian drone shot down over northern Israel last week, which led to Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria, and directly addressed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who also attended the conference.
“Iran also denies that it committed an act of aggression against Israel last week, that it sent a drone into our airspace to threaten our people. Well, here’s a piece of that Iranian drone, or what’s left of it after we shot it down. I brought it here so you can see for yourself. Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should. It’s yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel’s resolve,” he said.
He added, in a reference to the nuclear deal between the world powers and Iran: “We can stop this dangerous regime. We can roll back its aggression and by doing so, create a more peaceful, a more prosperous and a more secure world for our region and for our future.”
Zarif later mocked Netanyahu’s theatrics, calling it a “cartoonish circus.” Netanyahu had called Zarif in his speech “the smooth-talking mouthpiece of Iran’s regime” who “lies with eloquence.”
Netanyahu told reporters he focused his Munich address on Iran to convince U.S President Donald Trump to reinstate sanctions against Iran, in an effort to roll back the nuclear deal with the Islamic State.
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