Israeli forces carried out a drone strike on an Iranian army base and assassinated a senior Iranian commander, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has admitted. Bennett known as on the US to embrace related ways towards Tehran.
In a Wall Road Journal op-ed revealed on Thursday, Bennett mentioned that he ordered a drone strike on “a UAV base on Iranian soil” in February 2022. The assault was launched in response to a pair of failed Iranian drone strikes on Israel, Bennett claimed.
Israel not often takes accountability for strikes or covert actions on Iranian soil and, regardless of Israeli media studies that the strike was deliberate by Bennett’s authorities, West Jerusalem by no means confirmed or denied carrying it out.
Bennett, who led the Jewish state from June 2021 to June 2022, additionally admitted that Israel was behind the killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officer Hassan Sayyad Khodaei in Tehran the next month, describing Khodaei because the commander of “Iran’s terror unit.”
Khodaei was shot 5 occasions at point-blank vary outdoors his residence, along with his killers escaping on bikes. As with the drone strike, Israeli officers by no means confirmed the nation’s involvement, though Israeli safety sources advised the New York Instances that they carried out the hit.
Iran maintained from the outset that Israeli “zionists” had been behind each assaults, and vowed to take revenge.
“There may be little direct struggle going down between Iran and Israel,” Bennett defined. “As a substitute, Iran continuously assaults Israel by way of its proxies in such locations as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Yemen.” Iran publicly admits arming and coaching a broad vary of anti-Israel forces, together with Shia militias in Iran and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters have engaged in tit-for-tat firefights and missile exchanges with Israeli forces alongside the Lebanese border for the reason that Israel-Hamas struggle broke out on October 7. With the Israeli authorities threatening to open up a second entrance towards the Lebanese militants, a Hezbollah spokesman advised RT earlier this month that the group is “at struggle” with Israel.
Bennett’s op-ed known as on the US to affix Israel in “bringing down Iran’s evil regime,” citing the 2022 strikes as examples of how this might be achieved.
His name to arms will doubtless discover favor amongst anti-Iran hardliners in Washington. Amongst this group is Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who on Thursday known as for the bombing of Iranian oil fields and army headquarters. Nevertheless, US President Joe Biden has so far restricted his anti-Iran efforts to airstrikes on militia targets in Iraq and Syria.
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