Israel’s Netanyahu says Iran made a big mistake and will pay
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran’s missile attack on Israel failed and vowed retaliation.
“Iran made a big mistake tonight – and it will pay for it,” he said at the outset of a political-security meeting. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies.”
Israel’s U.N. ambassador said his government will decide when and how to respond to Iran’s barrage of close to 200 ballistic missiles that forced Israel’s 10 million population into bomb shelters. “But I can tell you one thing, it will be noticed,” he said. “It will be painful.”
Danny Danon reacted to a statement from Iran’s U.N. Mission that any new Israeli action would be met with a “crushing response,” saying: “I would not advise Iran to challenge our determination, our capabilities. In the past, we have proved it. We will prove it again.”
“We have no desire for war or escalation, but we cannot sit idly by when our civilians are being attacked in such manner,” the Israeli ambassador said. “Iran used to send boxes but now, when they send almost 200 ballistic missiles, that’s something that I don’t think any other nation in the world will ignore.”
Iran’s U.N. ambassador is warning Israel that its response to any acts of aggression against Tehran “will be swift, decisive and stronger than before.”
Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said in letters to the U.N. Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres late Tuesday that its missile strikes against military and security targets in Israel were carried out in self-defense, under the U.N. Charter and in response to Israel’s “aggressive actions.”
He pointed to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, the detonation of pagers in Lebanon in September that killed at least 12 people and injured 2,800 others including Iran’s ambassador to the country, and the Sept. 27 assassinations of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian General Abbas Nilforoushan in Beirut.
Iravani said the Security Council’s inaction “has allowed Israel to flagrantly breach all red lines and violate the core principles of international law.”
He reiterated Iran’s calls for the council “to urgently and decisively intervene to halt Israel’s continued aggression and war crimes against Lebanon, Gaza and Syria and to prevent the situation from escalating into a full-scale regional war.”
