Netanyahu tells Iranians ‘nowhere in Middle East Israel cannot reach’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a fresh warning to Iran Monday, saying there was no place in the Middle East beyond Israel’s reach amid a flurry of strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon. In a video statement made in English, Netanyahu addressed the people of Iran and warned that their government was bringing them “closer to the abyss”.

“With every passing moment, the regime is bringing you — the noble Persian people — closer to the abyss,” said Netanyahu. “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach,” the prime minister added, warning the people of Iran that their “regime plunges our region deeper into darkness and deeper into war”. “Don’t let a small group of theocrats crush your hopes and your dreams,” Netanyahu said.

Israel has in recent days been mounting heavy air strikes in Lebanon against the “Axis of Resistance”, a network of Iran-aligned militant groups in the region, including in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. An Israeli strike on Beirut Friday killed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah that has been armed and financed by the Islamic republic for years.

Iran has also vowed to avenge the killing of Abbas Nilforoushan, a top commander of the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who died alongside the Hezbollah leader on Friday. In his video statement, Netanyahu expressed hope for a future “when Iran is finally free”, saying it would “come a lot sooner than people think”.