Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a fresh warning to Iran on Monday, saying there is no place in the Middle East beyond Israel’s reach, amid a wave of attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In a video statement delivered in English, Netanyahu addressed the people of Iran and warned that their government was bringing them “closer to the abyss.”
“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you – the great Persian people – closer to the abyss,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister warned the people of Iran, saying, “There is no place in the Middle East that Israel cannot reach.”
“Don’t let a small group of religious leaders crush your hopes and your dreams,” Netanyahu said.
Israel has been carrying out heavy airstrikes in Lebanon in recent days against the “axis of resistance,” a network of Iran-aligned terrorist groups in the region that includes Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
An Israeli strike in Beirut on Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been armed and financed by the Islamic republic for years.
Iran has also vowed to avenge the killing of Abbas Nilforoshan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed along with a Hezbollah leader on Friday.
In his video statement, Netanyahu expressed hope for a future “when Iran will finally be free”, adding that “it will happen sooner than people think”.
“Everything will be different,” he said. “Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will live in peace. Iran will prosper as before.”
Netanyahu’s comments came hours after Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that the country has no plans to send its fighters to directly confront Israel.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said, “There is no need for the Islamic Republic of Iran to send additional or volunteer troops.” He said fighters in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories “have the capacity and strength to defend themselves against aggression”.
Earlier on Monday, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian visited Hezbollah’s office in Tehran to “pay tribute” to Nasrallah, according to the government’s website.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who has the final say on all matters of state in Iran – has vowed that Nasrallah’s death “will not be in vain”.
Khamenei said that Israel is “too weak to cause significant damage to Hezbollah’s solid construction in Lebanon” and he called on the “axis of resistance” to stand with Hezbollah.
“Lebanon will regret its aggressive and evil enemy,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
