Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Israel’s arch-foe Iran, vowing that any attempt by Tehran to block the key waterway off Yemen’s coast would be met by force from the “international coalition” and Israel in particular.
The harsh statements by the Israeli PM, who was speaking at a graduation ceremony for naval officers on Wednesday, were referring to the recent Houthi attack on a Saudi oil tanker off Yemen’s western coast. The Saudi-led coalition has repeatedly said the Houthis are armed and supported by Iran, but both the group and Tehran deny the claims.
Yet, Netanyahu branded the incident “a sharp clash with Iran’s satellites who tried to sabotage international shipping” at the mouth of the Red Sea. The Saudi-led coalition insists that its oil tanker was attacked by the Houthis in the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait located between Yemen and Eritrea and Djibouti on the Arabian Peninsula.
Nobody was injured and the damage posed no threat to the environment.
“If Iran tries to block the Straits of Bab al-Mandab, it will find itself facing an international coalition determined to prevent it from doing so, and this coalition will also include the State of Israel and all its arms,” Netanyahu warned.
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman backed Netanyahu’s statements on Tehran, saying that “recently, we have heard of threats to harm Israeli ships in the Red Sea.” Speaking at the same ceremony he promised that the Israeli military is ready “to respond simultaneously on two fronts, and also on the Red Sea.”
“Only in that case we would be less selective and the harm to our enemies would be greater. I hope they take that into account,” he added.
The Saudi-led coalition has been waging a military campaign against Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015, in an attempt to put the ousted Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi back in power. The intervention and blockade of the country has contributed to a massive humanitarian disaster. Since the start of the campaign, the coalition has been accused by human rights groups and activists of killing thousands of civilians but it has rarely accepted responsibility.
The Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa and large parts in the north of the country, have been occasionally targeting Saudi oil facilities. In April, a Saudi oil tanker was also struck by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, west of Yemen’s Hodeidah. The vessel sustained “minor damage” and continued on its route.
Go ahead, Benny boy, make Iran’s day when your “Most moral army on Earth”–
1. could not defeat Hezbollah in 2006
2. cannot defeat nearly unarmed Gazans today
3. cannot defeat the Palestinians you would love to genocide
4. actually believe Khazars are “God’s Chosen People”
5. could not stop the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin WHICH YOU APPLAUDED (according to the movie “Rabin-the Last Day” made in Israel and spoken in Hebrew)
6. are allowing Talmudists (aka the Synagogue of Satan) to take over the country, which is why you did that stupid bill or yours
7. Just pissed off Norway over detaining a boat headed to Gaza closer to Egypt than to Israel—next thing you know you’ll send the Mossad out to take over a sailboat we’re on in the Atlantic!
8. And where were you when Israel attacked the USS Liberty and murdered 34 American sailors? Cheering, no doubt.
Cheering and recording it for posterity’s sake?
“If Iran tries to block the Straits of Bab al-Mandab, it will find itself facing an international coalition determined to prevent it from doing so, and this coalition will also include the State of Israel and all its arms,” Netanyahu warned.”
So what you’re basically saying is… you ain’t bad enough, and you ain’t got the cajones to do it all by YOURSELF, FAGGOT???