Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would do everything possible to “prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons” and stressed that Israel had carried out a direct attack on Iran.
Reporting from Russia Today, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was openly attacking Iran when confirmed by journalists in Tel Aviv.
“Who said we didn't attack Iran? We did,” stressed the Israeli leader, quoted on Sunday (28/1/2024).
Israel claims that Iran planned an attack on October 7, 2023, when nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and many people were taken hostage by Hamas.
Previously, Israel openly accused Iran of helping Hamas through money, training and weapons, technological know-how and intelligence.
“Iran supports this. We are in conflict with Iran. Imagine what Iran can do to us, to destroy us,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said Israel would only agree to an agreement that would give them security control over all of Gaza.
“Iran is the head of the octopus and you see its tentacles everywhere from the Houthis to Hezbollah to Hamas,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said the accusations were “based on political reasons.”
Iran is widely viewed by Israel and the United States (US) as the main destabilizing force in the Middle East and is suspected of donating weapons, military expertise and training to Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi group in Yemen.
Earlier, the US accused Iran of being “heavily involved” in Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, claiming that Iran had provided drones, missiles and intelligence to the rebels.
Tehran denies the accusations and insists that “resistance groups” acted independently and “did not receive orders from Tehran to confront the war crimes and genocide committed by Israel.”
Israel has rarely publicly acknowledged attacking Iran directly, but the Islamic Republic has long been a target of Netanyahu's during his several terms in office.
Last December, former Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, revealed that Israel had attacked an unmanned aerial vehicle base in Iran and killed a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Bennett, who served as prime minister of Israel from June 2021 to June 2022, made this admission in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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