Israel’s Netanyahu to Iran: Don’t test Israel’s resolve

FILE: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (yakub88 / Shutterstock)

MUNICH — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed an international agreement with Iran on Sunday, saying it has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

He told Iran that it should “not test Israel’s resolve.”

Netanyahu told world leaders, defence officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference the agreement has “unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond.”

Netanyahu, a longtime critic of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, likened it to the infamous 1938 “Munich Agreement” that Western powers signed with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to stave off war in Europe.

“The concessions to Hitler only emboldened the Nazi regime,” he said. “Rather than choosing a path that might have prevented war… those well-intentioned leaders made a wider war inevitable and far more costly.”

Declaring that Iran’s “brazenness hit new highs,” he held up a fragment of what he said was an Iranian drone shot down last week by Israel in Israeli airspace and challenged Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was to speak later at the event.

“Mr. Zarif do you recognize this? You should, it’s yours,” Netanyahu said. “You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran — do not test Israel’s resolve!”

Tehran has denied that the drone belonged to Iran.

Netanyahu told the audience that destroying the drone was a demonstration of Israel’s resolve.

“Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck,” he said. “We will act if necessary, not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us but against Iran itself.”