Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is nothing more than a PR man [and] the real ruler of Iran is the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is aptly called the Supreme Leader,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at a news conference in Eilat on Monday.
The IDF invited media to see the weapons on a cargo ship that the Israeli Navy stopped near Sudan earlier this week.
“There are those who would prefer that we do not hold this news conference here today,” said the Prime Minister. “They feel uncomfortable that we show what is really happening inside Iran. They prefer that we continue to nurture the illusion that Iran has changed direction….
“The weapons on this ship were destined for terrorists in Gaza who are committed to Israel’s destruction. The goal was to have these weapons rain down on the heads of Israel’s citizens. The ship was organized by Iran, dispatched by Iran, financed by Iran. The missiles were loaded by Iran in Iran.
“As usual, Iran denies these facts. In fact, its foreign minister calls these facts ‘failed lies.’ But it’s Iran who’s lying. Our intelligence services exposed the ship’s wayward route and Iran’s efforts to disguise it; they exposed the ship’s deadly cargo, and its intended destination.
“The ship’s crew testified how they loaded the containers which contained the weapons unknown to them in the main port of Iran, Bandar Abbas. In other words, Iran sent these missiles to terrorists, and Iran is brazenly lying.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu accused many nations in the international community “with the desire to bury their heads in the sand.”
He continued, “ They conveniently ignore Iran’s continued criminal aggression in the mass killings in Syria; in supporting the terrorist organizations in Lebanon, in Gaza; in subversion throughout the Middle East; in dispatching terrorists to five continents; in the execution of hundreds of innocent people inside Iran every year. Above all, they deceive themselves into believing that Iran has given up its goal of developing nuclear weapons.
This determination to ignore the truth…is first of all hypocritical. I said a moment ago that at most I heard a few faint condemnations of Iran from the international community after we intercepted this murderous shipment. We even saw representatives of the world powers shaking hands and smiling with the heads of Iran’s regime, at the same time we were unloading these missiles here in Eilat.
“Does anyone truly believe that Iran has given up its plans to develop nuclear weapons or long-range ballistic missiles that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Europe and the United States?
“The missiles that we uncovered today were intended to strike at the citizens of Israel. The intercontinental ballistic missiles that Iran is developing are intended to strike at the citizens of the West. Come to think of it, Iran might not need ICBMs. Just as they concealed these weapons in containers on this ship, they could tomorrow conceal in other containers the ultimate weapon, nuclear weapons, which they could ship to any port in the world.”