Netanyahu to Iran: ‘Do not test Israel’s resolve’

MUNICH — Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attending a security conference with international leaders Sunday, brandished what he said was part of an Iranian drone shot down by Israel and warned that he was ready to go to war if Tehran continued to entrench itself in Syria.

Netanyahu, directly addressing Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, during his speech said: “Do you recognize this? You should. It’s yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel’s resolve.”

He said that if pushed, Israel would act “not only against Iranian proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself.”

A few hours after Netanyahu’s speech Sunday, Zarif dismissed the Israeli leader’s warning as a “cartoonish circus which does not even deserve the dignity of a response.”

The Iranian foreign minister accused Netanyahu of deliberately escalating the situation with “almost daily incursions into Syrian airspace” at a time when he was under pressure at home.

The remarks came just more than a week after the Israeli military had engaged directly with Iranian forces in Syria, striking what Israel said were a number of Iranian targets after intercepting a drone that had penetrated its airspace, then losing an Israeli fighter jet under Syrian anti-aircraft fire.

It is believed to be the first Israeli plane lost under enemy fire in decades.

Israel has long warned about the risk of conflict as Iranian forces and their allies, including Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, have dug in on Syrian territory and approached the boundary with the Israeli-held portion of the Golan Heights.

Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, focusing largely on what it says are advanced weapons stores or convoys of weapons meant for Hezbollah and it has also reportedly hit Syrian government facilities involved in weapons development and an Iranian base under construction in Syria.

“I’ve made clear in word and deed that Israel has red lines it will enforce,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “Israel will continue to prevent Iran from establishing a permanent military presence in Syria. Israel will continue to act to prevent Iran from establishing another terror base from which to threaten Israel.”