Jerusalem:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a fresh warning to Iran Monday, saying there was no place in the Middle East beyond Israel’s reach amid a flurry of strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In a video statement made in English, Netanyahu addressed the people of Iran and warned that their government was bringing them “closer to the abyss”.
“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss,” said Netanyahu.
“There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” the prime minister added, warning the people of Iran that their “regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war”.
“Don’t let a small group of theocrats crush your hopes and your dreams,” Netanyahu said.
Israel has in recent days been mounting heavy air strikes in Lebanon against the “Axis of Resistance”, a network of Iran-aligned militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
An Israeli strike in Beirut Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah which has been armed and financed by the Islamic Republic for years.
Iran has also vowed to avenge the killing of Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who died alongside the Hezbollah leader on Friday.
In his video statement, Netanyahu expressed hope for a future “when Iran is finally free”, saying it would “come a lot sooner than people think”.
“Everything will be different,” he said. “Our two countries, Israel and Iran, will be at peace. Iran will thrive as never before.”
Netanyahu’s comments came hours after Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the country had no plans to send its fighters to directly confront Israel.
“There is no need to send extra or volunteer forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani, adding that Lebanon and fighters in the Palestinian territories “have the capability and strength to defend themselves against the aggression”.
Earlier Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Hezbollah’s office in Tehran “to pay tribute” to Nasrallah, according to the government’s website.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who has the final say in all matters of the state in Iran — has vowed that Nasrallah’s death “will not be in vain”.
Khamenei said Israel was “too weak to cause significant damage to the solid construction of Hezbollah in Lebanon” and called on the “Axis of Resistance” to stand with Hezbollah.
“Lebanon will make the aggressor and the evil enemy regretful,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)