NETANYAHU: ISRAEL IS HELPING DEFEND MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES AGAINST IRAN
NETANYAHU: ISRAEL IS HELPING DEFEND MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES AGAINST IRAN
Israel not only is defending itself against Iran but other countries in the Middle East, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told BBC Arabic.
“Iran is planning attacks against us all the time and attacks across the region against many of our neighbors, so we have to act against their activities in the region,” Netanyahu, who is also Defense Minister, said in an exclusive interview with BBC World Presenter Mohammed Seif ElNasr while in London on Thursday.
In his interview two weeks before elections, he also said that Iran is attempting to organize attacks throughout Africa, not just in the Middle East and stressed the need for Israel coordinate with other militaries operating in the region to avoid incidents of error during the implementation of operations.
Israel, which has admitted to hundreds of airstrikes in Syria against Iranian and Hezbollah targets has a deconfliction mechanism with Russia which intervened in the Syrian conflict in September 2015 on the side President Bashar al-Assad to avoid any unwanted conflict.
The relationship between Jerusalem and Moscow was strained last year after a Russian military plane was downed by Syria air defenses following an Israeli airstrike on nearby Iranian targets but nevertheless the IAF has had largely had free reign to carry out strikes on targets deemed a threat to the Jewish State.
Russia is also very active in stopping terror and Iranian hostility at Israel’s request.
According to foreign reports, Israel has also carried out airstrikes against Shiite militias in Iraq in coordination with US forces who are operating in the country.
A report in The New York Times quoted US officials as saying that Israel was behind several raids that struck military targets in Iraq, including a July 19th attack that struck a base used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to transfer weapons to Syria.
The NYT report added that the July 19 attack was carried out from within Iraq and destroyed a load of guided missiles with a range of 125 miles.
Netanyahu said that some Arab countries don’t care about the dead lock in the Palestinian issue but rather are looking for defence and security cooperation with Israel.
According to him, there’s been a shift in the attitudes of several Arab countries towards Israel in terms of the Palestinian issue and are looking for increased defence and security cooperation with the Jewish State.
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Source: The Jerusalem Post
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