Israel has changed the face of the Middle East: Netanyahu

Last Updated on December 13, 2024 10:37 am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel has changed the face of the Middle East by defeating its enemies step by step. Netanyahu made the remarks at a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday (December 9) after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria. This is his first press conference in nearly 100 days.

Speaking to reporters, Netanyahu claimed that Israel is defeating its enemies “step by step.”

“We have won the existential struggle imposed on us and defeated the enemies,” he said. At the time, he referred to Assad’s Syria as a central element of the “Iranian axis of evil.”

Last Sunday morning, Syrian rebels captured Damascus in a two-week campaign. This ended the 13-year civil war against the Assad government in Syria and the more than 50-year-long dictatorship of the Assad family.

Netanyahu said at the press conference, “Iran has spent billions of dollars to keep Assad in power. And the Assad regime has had the opportunity to carry out the most brutal repression against its citizens. It has killed millions of people in the country.”

He also said, “Assad’s Syria harbored hostility and hatred towards Israel. Syria attacked in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Which is another example of Iranian terrorism. Syria was also the pipeline for supplying weapons from Iran to Hezbollah.”

Netanyahu repeated his previous claim, saying, “Assad has fallen; because we have continuously attacked Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.”

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has carried out planned, measured and effective attacks to break the Iranian axis.

Regarding Gaza, Netanyahu said, “Israel is now waiting to destroy the last of Hamas’s military wing and is working to return the hostages held there.”

Regarding Lebanon, Netanyahu stressed that the slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was the main link between Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. He was the “axis of the axis.” Hitting him is a serious blow to the entire axis.

Source: The Times of Israel