“Many in Iran understand that the regime of the ayatollahs is wasting enormous resources on military subversion abroad, instead of investing in the needs of its citizens at home,” said Netanyahu.
The sanctions-relief “cash machine” that funded Iran’s aggression in the region since the Iranian nuclear deal was signed in 2015 is now broken, and the fall-out is currently being seen in the economic protests in Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.
Netanyahu, in his first public comments on the demonstrations in Iran that have protesters demanding that Iranian money be spent at home, and not in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, said that “many in Iran understand that the regime of the ayatollahs is wasting enormous resources on military subversion abroad, instead of investing in the needs of its citizens at home. ”
The prime minister’s comments came at a graduation ceremony at the Hatzerim air base for cadets in the Air Force’s pilots course
“It is too early to determine how things will develop, but the direction is clear: the cash machine of Iranian aggression has been shattered,” he said. The prime minister added that the Iranian people are “feeling in their pockets the implications of the fundamentalist fanaticism of their rulers.”
Netanyahu said that US President Donald Trump’s move in May to withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement was a “historic decision” that created a completely new strategic situation for Israel.
“Iran has experienced economic turmoil following the resumption of sanctions against it,” he said. “The flow of big money into its coffers was halted with screeching brakes.”
Netanyahu said that contrary to the predictions of international experts, the reintroduction of sanctions on Iran did not unify the public around the regime, “but the exact opposite occurred. ”
The prime minister said that the decisions by numerous international companies to leave Iran, and the mass demonstrations taking place there now “show that our efforts to put Iran in its place have borne fruit. This was not always the case – at first we stood alone in our opposition to the nuclear agreement with Iran,” an agreement he said financed Iran’s expansionist ambitions.
But, he said, Israel did not give up on the issue, which he termed a “good thing” since Trump’s decision has now created a whole new strategic situation for Israel.
Nevertheless, the prime minister said that Iran remains “the greatest threat to our existence.” He told the new pilots that the IDF and the IAF “will continue to act with force against Iranian targets in the region.”
The prime minister said that Iran has raised the banner of wanting to destroy Israel.” I want to emphasize unequivocally that we will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons,” he said. “We will continue to act with all our might against its plan to turn Syria into a lethal missile base against us.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post