Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Islamic Republic not to test Israel’s resolve. During his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu stressed while Iran seeks to annihilate the Jewish State, Israel will continue to act to assure its national security interests are preserved.
The Israeli leader also took the opportunity to refer to the celebrations that are taking place in Iran, in which millions of Iranians are marking the 40th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. “In Iran today they are marking 40 years since the Islamic revolution and are trying to boast about a new missile. Iran openly declares its intention to destroy the State of Israel. I have a clear message to the tyrants in Tehran: We know what you are doing and where you are doing it. We will continue to take action against Iran with all the tools at our disposal in order to ensure the security and future of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu was referring to a new Iranian-made cruise missile, named Hoveizeh, which was unveiled over the weekend by the Islamic Republic’s defense ministry. According to Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami, the surface-to-surface cruise missile requires “a very short time for its preparedness and can fly at a low altitude,” with a range of some 1,300 kilometers. Following the unveiling of the missile, the Defense Ministry released an un-dated video purportedly showing a Hoveizeh cruise-missile being test-fired from a mobile launcher, with Minister Hatami quoted as saying that the missile had successfully hit its target at a distance of 1,200 kilometers.