Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned that Israel could act against Iran.
He said this in reaction to border incidents in Syria which brought the Middle East foes closer to direct confrontation.
In his first address to the annual Munich Security Conference, which draws security and defence officials and diplomats from across Europe and the United States, Netanyahu held up an image of what he said was an Iranian drone that flew into Israeli airspace this month.
“Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck,” he stated.
“We will act if necessary not just against Iran’s proxies but against Iran itself.”
During a chat with journalists, Netanyahu said: “The fact that we have this newfound relationship with the Arab countries; something that I would not have imagined in my lifetime. This is not what they call a spin.
“This is real, it’s deep, it’s broad: it doesn’t necessarily cross the threshold of a formal peace, and I doubt that would happen until we get some formal progress with the Palestinians – so the two are linked”.
Reacting, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, called Netanyahu’s presentation “a cartoonish circus, which does not even deserve a response”.
“What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility (of Israel) has crumbled,” Zarif, said while addressing a news conference after Netanyahu’s remarks.
“Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it’s as if a disaster has happened,” Zarif said, accusing Israel of using “aggression as a policy against its neighbours” by regularly carrying out incursions into Syria and Lebanon.
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