Lapid feuds on Twitter with Iran FM who said Israel ‘has no place in world’s future’

Author: Rhonda Published: January 4, 2022

Posting in Hebrew, English and Persian, Israel’s top diplomat answers Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, says Tehran’s ‘failed leadership is destroying Iran from within’

By TOI STAFFToday, 2:01 pm

Left: Foreign Minister Yair Lapid speaks during a Yesh Atid faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, October 25, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90); Right: Then Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian speaks during a press conference in Moscow, Russia, August 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze, File)

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid clashed on Twitter with his Iranian counterpart on Tuesday, after Tehran’s top diplomat threatened that “Zionism has no place in the future of the world.”

The exchange came amid talks between world powers and Iran on restoring the 2015 accord curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

The trigger was an interview aired Friday to mark 10 years since Lapid entered politics. When asked by Channel 12 news if Israel has the ability to strike uranium enrichment facilities or weapons sites in Iran, he said: “Israel has capabilities, some of which the world, and even some experts in the field, cannot even imagine. And Israel will protect itself against the Iranian threat.”

Lapid also indicated Israel could attack Iran if necessary without informing US President Joe Biden’s administration, which is looking to rejoin the nuclear deal. Israel vocally opposed the accord, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted that “the disturbing remarks of the foreign minister of the fake Israeli regime against the great nation of Iran” were a pipe dream.

“We will forcefully and rationally defend the rights, interests and progress of the Iranian people,” he wrote in Persian, according to a translation by IFP media wire.

“Zionism has no place in the future of the world,” Amir-Abdollahian added.

On Tuesday, Lapid retweeted Amir-Abdollahian’s post, with a response to it in Hebrew, English and Persian.

“The extremist Iranian regime threatens Israel with annihilation but will continue to lose this battle,” Lapid wrote in his English tweet. “Their failed leadership is destroying Iran from within. In the words of the Iranian poet Saadi: ‘He whose essence is evil, will forever remain so.’

“Iranians should know that it is their regime that is making their lives miserable. The State of Israel is strong and will not allow its citizens to be harmed.”

Israel has long seen Iran’s nuclear program as a threat and seeks a hardline approach by the US and the international community to the current nuclear talks.

Israel has reportedly approved a budget of some NIS 5 billion ($1.5 billion) to be used to prepare the military for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear program. It includes funds for various types of aircraft, intelligence-gathering drones and unique armaments needed for such an attack, which would have to target heavily fortified underground sites.

A senior US official said last month that Israeli and American military leaders are set to discuss possible military drills to practice destroying Iranian nuclear facilities in a potential worst-case scenario if nuclear talks fail.

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but Iranian officials regularly threaten to annihilate Israel. In a recent drill, Revolutionary Guards forces blew up a target set up to resemble Israel’s Dimona nuclear complex.

Last month, Iran’s state-affiliated Tehran Times issued a threat to Israel, publishing a map of the country riddled with markers as a reminder that Iranian forces can ostensibly strike anywhere they want.

Alongside a front-page opinion piece headlined “Just one wrong move!” the map showed scores of markers along the length and breadth of the country.

Iran, Hezbollah Bolster Presence, Weapon Shipments Near Damascus, Syrian War Monitor Says

Author: Rhonda Published: January 2, 2022

Hezbollah are turning an old military base south of Damascus into a drone training and operations center to protect from Israeli strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

A fire west of the capital Damascus, an opposition war monitor reported on Sunday, after two strikes attributed to Israel last month targeted Iranian weapons shipments along Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Lebanese Hezbollah forces began work over the past days to expand an old Syrian military base south of the Syrian capital, to be used as a training and operations center for reconnaissance drones.

The work at the compound in the Saydah Zaynab area includes underground construction, which the Observatory said is meant to protect Iranian drones from Israeli strikes. Hezbollah, according to the report, drove out farmers in the area from their lands, in order to prevent them from documenting the construction.

According to the same report, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Iranian-backed militias have assumed near full control of al-Dimas military airbase west of Damascus, once used by the Assad regime, using it to replace the T-4 airbase in the Homs area, which has come under alleged Israeli attacks targeting weapons shipments.

Al-Dimas already started taking in weapons and drone part deliveries, the report said, adding that construction began there, too, to conceal “strategic weapons” smuggled from Iran.

Last week, Syria blamed Israel for an air strike on the port of Latakia, which reportedly targeted containers containing Iranian munitions, in the second such attack within a month attributed to Israel.

The damage to the country’s main port could complicate Assad’s efforts to rebuild the Syrian economy after a decade of war, particularly as he seeks to regain regional and international legitimacy.

Saudi network Al Arabiya reported last week that President Bashar Assad wants to regain full control of Syria’s coastal region, and has asked the Iranian Guards to limit their presence there.

Saudi Arabia has also been putting pressure on Assad to curb Iran’s actions in the country, according to Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, after Riyadh accused Iran and Hezbollah of transferring weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels via Syria.

Amid Iran nuke talks, Lapid says Israel has capabilities many ‘cannot even imagine’

Author: Rhonda Published: January 1, 2022

In TV interview, foreign minister vows Jewish state ‘will protect itself against the Iranian threat’; promises anyone who misused NSO Group spyware ‘will be brought to justice’

By TOI STAFFToday, 11:15 pm

Israeli foreign minister and head of the Yesh Atid party Yair Lapid, speaking at a faction meeting in the Knesset, on November 8, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid talked up Israel’s military capabilities amid talks between world powers and Iran on restoring the 2015 accord curbing Tehran’s nuclear program.

In an interview aired Friday to mark 10 years since he entered politics, Lapid was asked if Israel has the ability to strike uranium enrichment facilities and/or weapons sites in Iran.

“Israel has capabilities, some of which the world, and even some experts in the field, cannot even imagine. And Israel will protect itself against the Iranian threat,” he told Channel 12 news.

He also indicated Israel could attack Iran if necessary without informing the Biden administration, which is looking to rejoin the nuclear deal. Israel vocally opposed the accord, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“Israel will do whatever it needs to do to protect its security. And we don’t need anybody’s permission for that. That’s been the case since the first day we established this state,” he said.

Lapid also commented on the negotiations being held in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal, from which former president Donald Trump withdrew in 2018. Iran has since ramped up its nuclear activities in violation of the pact.

The foreign minister said there had not yet been a “capitulation” to Iran during the talks, and stressed: “Israel is not against a good deal, it is only against the wrong deal.”

He added that Israel has shown information to world powers “that proves the Iranians are lying” about their nuclear activities.

Palais Coburg, where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, on December 17, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Gruber, File)

Separately, Lapid was asked about Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, which has faced increasing scrutiny in the wake of allegations that its wares have been used by countries to hack opposition politicians, dissidents, journalists and others.

“The [Israeli] license requirements for NSO and all other such cyberattack firms are simple: You can only use it to prevent terror and to prevent serious crime,” he said.

“If anybody used Pegasus, the core program of NSO, for other purposes, they will be brought to justice, and we won’t hide or cover up anybody,” Lapid added.

During the interview, Lapid also defended the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid accusations of zigzagging in its response to the emergence of the Omicron variant.

“When I compare us to what is happening in France, Germany, the United States, the developed nations, Israel is handing COVID significantly better than the world average,” he said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (R) speaks with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid during the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, December 5, 2021. (Emil Salman/Pool/Flash90)

Lapid praised Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s role, saying the premier was managing the pandemic “wisely and carefully.”

“Sometimes you have to respond quickly to changing conditions,” he said of the various policy shifts and restriction changes.

“We’ve not had a single lockdown, we’ve kept the economy open,” he said, referring to the coalition government that took office in June.

Israel’s top diplomat also noted there are currently fewer than 100 serious cases.

Lapid was also asked if he believed Bennett would hand over the premiership to him in September 2023, as the two agreed as part of their power-sharing agreement.

“Yes… I have faith in Naftali, yes,” he said.

Lapid feuds on Twitter with Iran FM who said Israel ‘has no place in world’s future’

Iran, Hezbollah Bolster Presence, Weapon Shipments Near Damascus, Syrian War Monitor Says

Amid Iran nuke talks, Lapid says Israel has capabilities many ‘cannot even imagine’

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