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Iran: ‘Great’ risk of war with Israel

February 18, 2019 at 11:14 am

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds up a piece of wreckage he claims is from an Iranian drone that was shot down by Israel on February 10, at the 54th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Germany on 18 February, 2018 [Andreas Gerbert/Anadolu Agency]

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said yesterday that the risk of starting a war with Israel is “great”.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Zarif warned that the danger would be “even greater” if the world continued to turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law.

The Iranian foreign minister reiterated his country’s commitment to the 2015 nuclear agreement signed with the world powers, however he stressed that Germany, France and Britain should make greater efforts to demonstrate their commitment to the nuclear deal. “Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against a dangerous tide of US unilateralism,” he added.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of funding organisations and militias hostile to Israel, instead of spending the country’s revenues on improving the Iranian people’s living conditions.

“I do not ignore the Iranian regime’s threats, but I am not affected by them,” Netanyahu said, adding: “If this [Iranian] regime committed a grave mistake and tried to destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa, it would not succeed, and this would be the last time that Iran celebrates the revolution,” referring to the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution celebrated last week.

Last week during the Warsaw Conference, Netanyahu called for joint Arab-Israeli action against Iran, prompting Zarif to say a war on Iran would be suicide for Israel.

READ: Israel threatens to attack Iran bases in Iraq