Netanyahu warns Iran renewed its nuclear program and puts Israel's existence at stake before elections
In a campaign video, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran has renewed its nuclear program and threatens Israel's existence, while Tehran replied with direct threats and official statements and intermittent tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a campaign video broadcast Saturday evening that Iran has renewed its nuclear program, warning that the Iranian regime "wants to destroy us within a short period of time" and that what is at stake is the existence of the State of Israel and preventing its destruction, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
Israel will hold general elections on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow, and Netanyahu's remarks have escalated in the context of the election campaign.
In Tehran, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, threatened what he described as "the enemies" that if Iran were subjected to aggression he would make the occupied territories uninhabitable in less than an hour, according to the German news agency. Azizi posted a message in Hebrew on social media and a map in the Kharita newspaper showing infrastructure in the occupied territories, according to an Iranian agency affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at a televised event in Tehran that resuming a war with Israel and the United States would not change his country’s positions, adding that he is already thinking about the post-war stage and that Iran’s policies will remain the same whether a war breaks out or not, pointing to past experiences that produced similar results if tried again.
These statements come amid mounting American and Israeli threats of new strikes on Iran, while President Donald Trump said Friday that Washington "may carry out another small operation from (Epic Fury)," referring to the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran that began on 28 February.
The ceasefire that came into effect on 8 April ended the fiercest phase of fighting between Iran and the United States, with the exception of intermittent exchanges of fire in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which is a major route for global energy supplies. Those confrontations have been quiet in recent weeks.
