Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated the importance of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull-out from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, which subsequently thwarted the financial capacity of the Ayatollah regime to bankroll the Syrian regime, Hezbollah and Hamas. During a meeting in Jerusalem with 60 leaders of the powerful Jewish American lobby AIPAC, Netanyahu also stressed the importance of Israel’s military activity against Iranian forces in Syria, which aims to deprive Iran from establishing a military front along Israel’s northern border. The Israeli Prime Minister said, “The most important thing that happened in the last year, in our region is the decision by President Trump to move out of the [Iranian nuclear] agreement. That has caused a tailspin in Iran’s economy. What the nuclear deal did was fuel Iran’s coffers, and from these coffers, they put it right into Syria, right into Hezbollah, right into Hamas. The second most dramatic thing that happened is our military activity in Syria to deprive Iran from basing itself militarily against us in Syria.”
The top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, declared that “The Islamic Republic of Iran will keep its military advisers, revolutionary forces and its weapons in Syria.” In comments General Jafari made to Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, he ridiculed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for threatening Iran’s continuous presence in Syria, calling it “a joke”, and warned Jerusalem that it “was playing with a lion’s tail.” The Revolutionary Guards Chief further responded to Netanyahu’s threat, saying: “You should be afraid of the day that our precision-guided missiles roar and fall on your head.”
The threat by Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari came after the Israeli Prime Minister claimed responsibility for a strike of an Iranian warehouse, located within the Damascus International Airport. Furthermore, his declaration contradicts a statement made by Iran’s Foreign ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, who dismissed reports earlier this week of any Iranian military presence in the region.