Netanyahu warns Israel's jets 'can reach' Iran

Published July 10, 2019
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. — AFP/File
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. — AFP/File

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that Israel's fighter jets “can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran,” in his latest comments directed at his country's arch-foe.

While visiting an air force base where he inspected F-35 jets made by US firm Lockheed Martin, Netanyahu issued a video with one of the planes behind him.

“Recently, Iran has been threatening the destruction of Israel,” he said at the Nevatim air base in southern Israel.

“It would do well to remember that these planes can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran and certainly Syria.”

Netanyahu has issued a series of statements against Iran in recent weeks. They follow the Islamic republic's decision to begin breaching some commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and attacks in the Gulf that Israel and the United States blame on Iran.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called an announcement by Iran that it would exceed the uranium enrichment cap set by the troubled accord a “very dangerous step”. He urged European countries to sanction Iran in response.

On Monday, Iran breached the enrichment cap as it seeks to press other parties into keeping their side of the bargain under the nuclear deal.

Netanyahu opposed the accord and urged US President Donald Trump to withdraw from it, which he eventually did.

Despite having opposed the deal, Netanyahu is now calling on European nations to enforce its parameters as he and the US seek to further pressure Iran.

Israel has also carried out hundreds of strikes in neighbouring Syria against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah military targets. It has vowed to keep Iran, which has backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his country's civil war, from entrenching itself militarily there.

In May 2018, Israel's military said it had become the first country to use F-35s in combat.

Opinion

Editorial

Smog hazard
Updated 05 Nov, 2024

Smog hazard

The catastrophe unfolding in Lahore is a product of authorities’ repeated failure to recognise environmental impact of rapid urbanisation.
Monetary policy
05 Nov, 2024

Monetary policy

IN an aggressive move, the State Bank on Monday reduced its key policy rate by a hefty 250bps to 15pc. This is the...
Cultural power
05 Nov, 2024

Cultural power

AS vital modes of communication, art and culture have the power to overcome social and international barriers....
Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.