(JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Monday of a “very severe response” should Iran take action against Israel, while emphasizing that the Jewish state is “not seeking confrontation.”
Speaking at a joint press conference in Jerusalem alongside the leaders of Greece and Cyprus, the premier said that Israel is aware of recent Iranian “exercises,” referring to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps missile drill which, according to Axios, Jerusalem has warned the Trump administration could be a cover for a strike against Israel.
“We are following this and we are making the necessary preparations,” said Netanyahu. “I want to make it clear to Iran here, any action against Israel will be met with a very severe response.”
Netanyahu spoke following a trilateral summit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
Asked if the Islamic Republic would be on the table during his sixth meeting with President Donald Trump, scheduled for Dec. 29 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Netanyahu affirmed that it will be discussed, saying that “we are not seeking confrontation with anyone … we seek stability, prosperity and peace.” The premier added that there were “great achievements” during the 12-day war with Iran in June, stressing that “our basic expectations from Iran have not changed,” a position that Washington shares, namely, “the level of enrichment and other activities, the ending of the proxy wars against us.”
Huckabee: Iran didn’t get Trump’s full message
In a video aired on Tuesday, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee responded to reports that the Islamic Republic is attempting to rebuild its nuclear and missile programs just six months after the joint Israeli-American operation, arguing that Tehran’s actions pose a threat to the entire world, not just the Jewish state.
“Iran, I don’t know if they ever took him [Trump] seriously, until the night that the B-2 bombers went to Fordow. I hope they got the message, but apparently they didn’t get the full message,” he said during an interview with the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at the US Embassy in Jerusalem. “They appear to be trying to reconstitute and find a new way to dig the hole deeper, secure it more,” he added.
Huckabee stressed that Iran threatens not just Israel, but the United States and Europe, and warned that if the Europeans fail to comprehend this, “then they’re dumber than I sometimes think they are.” At the same time, he said he was pleased that snapback sanctions were recently reimposed against the regime in Tehran, calling them “very important” and saying that more of these types of actions “will help to maybe choke off Iran’s ability to do what they’re trying to do.”
Huckabee emphasized that the Iranian regime has “threatened America for 46 consecutive years” since 1979, when the ayatollahs took power.
“They’ve always said, ‘Death to Israel, death to America,’ in the same sentence. This was never a separation. Israel is only the appetizer because you’re closer and you’re an easier target than the vast geographical expanse that represents the United States,” said Huckabee.
“But they’ve never hidden the fact that the real entrée, their ultimate goal, is to destroy the United States, because if you want to destroy Western civilization and move the world back to the 7th century and take us back to a place that, thank God, doesn’t exist anymore, then you cannot do that without taking the United States down,” the diplomat continued. “And that’s why they have said for all of these 46 years, ‘Death to America.’”
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