Israel’s PM Warns Iran And Proxies While Seeking Peace With Saudi Arabia
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM/NEW YORK (Worthy News) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran and its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah that Israel will continue to fight till the Jewish nation can live in peace, and he called for closer ties with Saudi Arabia.
“There is no place in Iran that Israel can not reach,” he told the United Nations General Assembly after several diplomats had left ahead of his speech.
He said Israel won’t rest till all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since its attack in Israel on October 7 are brought home.
Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 kidnapped in Israel by Gaza-based Hamas in last year’s violence, triggering a war in which tens of thousands of people died.
And Netanyahu told Hezbollah, “Enough is enough,” making clear that attacks against the Lebanon-based group would continue until all citizens fleeing Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel could return.
He also called for a peace agreement with Saudi Arabia, citing the Abraham Accords as an example.
The bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization, mediated by the administration of then-U.S. President Donald J. Trump, were signed between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain on September 15, 2020.
CLASHES INTENSIFY
Yet, as clashes intensify with Iran-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah attacking Israel, the United States and other nations have urged Americans to leave the region.
However, the American embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, said Friday that it “is not evacuating U.S. citizens at this time” despite advising Americans to leave amid escalating clashes between Israel and Hezbollah.
“There is a commercially available flight that U.S. citizens who expressed interest in departing Lebanon will have to book and pay directly with the airline,” it added.
Trump, who seeks to return to the White House through elections in November, has condemned the Middle East policies of the administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden.
Netanyahu almost had not appeared at this year’s gathering of the U.N. General Assembly, but after he heard the “lies and slander” leveled at Israel, he decided to come and “set the record straight.”
“Israel seeks peace; Israel yearns for peace,” he said, adding that Israel must defend itself against “savage murderers.”