Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Wednesday that “whoever tries to attack us will receive a crushing blow in return” as Tehran threatened to attack Israel if the escalation in the region continued.
Netanyahu spoke in Jerusalem at the Kohelet Forum just hours after Iran bombed a US airbase of Ain al-Assad in Iraq in response to the killing of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force General Qassem Soleimani by US forces.
Soleimani was “responsible for the death of countless innocent people. He destabilized many countries. For decades, he sowed fear and misery and anguish and he was planning much worse,” Netanyahu declared, saying President Donald Trump should “be congratulated for acting swiftly, boldly and resolutely against this terrorist-in-chief who was the architect and driver of Iran’s campaign of carnage and terror throughout the Middle East and throughout the world.”
The prime minister further noted that the challenges Israel is dealing with “are not lessening – on the contrary. Nevertheless, we stand steadfast against those who seek our lives. We stand determined and strong.”
“Whoever tries to attack us will receive a crushing blow in return,” he said ominously.
Iranian officials have threatened to attack Israel and to “reduce Tel Aviv and Haifa to ashes” if the US retaliates to its Wednesday missile attacks.
Iranian television has been broadcasting a war anthem in recent hours in the background of footage showing the Iranian missile and aircraft systems while promising that “there will be no safe house in Tel Aviv.”
The anthem calls for Saudi Arabia’s destruction and a confrontation with “the Devil,” America.
The IRGC threatened “US allies that are providing bases to America’s terrorist army that any country serving as the origin of bellicose and aggressive attacks in any form against the Islamic Republic of Iran” will be targeted.
The IRGC also stated that “Iran in no way sees the Zionist regime as separate from the criminal US regime.”