September 01, 2017
Israeli Prime Minister Bin-yamin Netanyahu has ac-cused Iran of building factories in Syria and Lebanon to manufacture precision-guided missiles, with the goal of firing them at Israel.
His allegations Monday came at the start of a meeting with Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, who is on his first official visit to the region since taking office at the beginning of the year.
“Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment, and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as war fronts against its declared goal to eradicate Israel,” Netanyahu said in Tel Aviv.
“[Iran] is also building sites to produce precision-guided missiles towards that end in both Syria and in Lebanon,” he said, without offering specifics. “This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept.”
There was no immediate comment from Tehran.
Netanyahu pressed Guterres on the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, with Israeli officials having accused it of “blindness” to what they call an arms build-up by Hezbollah.
Guterres vowed that he will “do everything in my capacity” to ensure UNIFIL fulfils its obligations.
Last month, Israeli media broadcast what it said were images from Israel’s Eros B satellite, showing a site in northwest Syria near the town of Baniyas that it claimed was intended to be a missile storage site.
Netanyahu’s remarks to Guterres on Iran follow his warning to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last month that Israel might be prepared to act unilaterally to prevent Tehran establishing a garrison on Israel’s doorstep.
Meeting Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Netanyahu said Iran was fighting to cement an arc of influence from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.
“Iran is already well on its way to controlling Iraq, Yemen and, to a large extent, is already in practice in control of Lebanon,” Netanyahu told Putin.
“We cannot forget for a single minute that Iran threatens every day to annihilate Israel,” he said. “Israel opposes Iran’s continued entrenchment in Syria. We will be sure to defend ourselves with all means against this and any threat.”
