The Iranian Parliament’s General Director for International Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday that the response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Syria is expected to be “shocking and crippling,” Mehr News reported.
“Tel Aviv’s aggression in Beirut was Netanyahu’s big miscalculation,” Abdollahian tweeted. “The expected response will be shocking and crippling. No doubt, the Zionists will pay a huge price for their aggression in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. The equation will change. Safeguarding sustainable security is the region’s red line.”
Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC Quds Force, the man behind the defeated attempt to attack northern Israel with armed drones, declared on Monday that “definitely, these insane operations will be the last struggles of the Zionist regime.”
At the same time, Iran also dismissed Israel’s report of blowing up those drones and their Iranian operators, calling them “mere lies,” according to the Tehran Times.
“This is a lie and is not true,” said Mohsen Rezaee, a former commander in the IRGC. “The US and Israel do not have the power to attack Iran’s centers and positions and the Zionist regime’s claims about targeting Iranian positions are lies.”
Meanwhile, on Sunday, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah condemned Israel’s drone attack.
So there’s some inconsistency in Shiite circles regarding the future of the Zionist enterprise and whether or not it actually destroyed those Iranian armed drones.
Iran’s threats against Israel come at the most inconvenient moment for Tehran, as its foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is in Europe, attempting to get a meeting with President Donald Trump over the US conditions for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, coupled with removal of the sanctions.
With that in mind, on Monday night Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an urgent appeal to the West, saying, “Iran is working on a broad front to carry out murderous terrorist attacks against the State of Israel. Israel will continue to defend its security, however that may be necessary. I call on the international community to act immediately so that Iran halts these attacks.”
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday phoned Netanyahu to say the US supports Israel’s right to self defense against the Iranian threat at its northern border. Pence tweeted: “Had a great conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning. The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself from imminent threats. Under President Donald Trump, America will always stand with Israel!”