In light of increasingly tense relations between Iran and the United States, and recent threats against Israel made by a top Iranian official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Islamic Republic on Tuesday that Israel’s stealth fighter jets “can reach every place in the Middle East.”
Netanyahu’s warning came Tuesday as he visited the Nevatim Air Force Base in the northern Negev Desert. During his visit, he met with Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi and Israel Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin.
“Lately, Iran has been threatening Israel with destruction,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to social media as he stood in front of an F-35 Adir stealth fighter. “It should remember that these planes can reach every place in the Middle East, including Iran, and, of course, also Syria.”
The remarks came just eight days after Mojtaba Zolmour, chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, was quoted by the Mehr news agency as saying that “if the U.S. attacks us, only half an hour will remain of Israel’s lifespan.”
On June 20, in an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), former Iranian defense minister Gen. Hossein Dhghan told Iraq’s Alnujaba TV that “Israel knows that Iran will erase its entity and uproot it from existence in case of war.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu warned that an Iranian decision to increase its enriched uranium beyond the bounds of the 2015 nuclear agreement is a “very dangerous step,” and implored the international community to stop Iran from getting closer to creating atomic weapons.
