As the conflict enters its third week, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has vowed to target Benjamin Netanyahu amid an ongoing war with Israel and the United States, AFP reported.
“If this child-killing criminal is alive, we will continue to pursue and kill him with full force,” the gardaí said on their Sepah News website.
Meanwhile, at least 15 people were killed when a US-Israeli missile strike hit an industrial area in Isfahan, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported. The attack hit a factory in a central Iranian city, killing workers inside.
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“The attack targeted a factory that manufactures heating and cooling equipment” and was in operation at the time of the strike, Fars said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday: “Iran calls on its fraternal neighbors to drive out foreign aggressors, especially when their only concern is Israel.”
Iran’s top diplomat previously dubbed the US-Israeli operation “Operation Epic Fury” as Operation Epic Mistake, saying: “The claim that Iran planned to attack the US or US forces, either pre-emptively or pre-emptively, is a pure and utter lie. The sole purpose of this lie is to justify Operation Epic Mistake, which was paid for by an ordinary American engineer and a fallible Israel.”
The tension between Iran and Israel has deep historical roots. Since the Iranian Revolution, Iran’s leadership has rejected Israel’s legitimacy, with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei once referring to Israel as a “cancerous tumor” in the region.
Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after the elder Khamenei was killed on February 28 during the opening strikes of the war.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has criticized Iran’s leadership, describing Mojtaba Khamenei as a “puppet” of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, saying he is unable to speak publicly. Netanyahu also said that the current conflict has fundamentally changed the regional balance, saying that Israel is now taking the initiative with unprecedented military force.
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Netanyahu, on the other hand, has spent decades warning that Iran is close to developing nuclear weapons that could threaten Israel, a concern he famously illustrated with a cartoon diagram of a bomb during a 2012 UN address.
Over the years, Israel has conducted covert operations against Iran’s nuclear program, including cyberattacks such as Stuxnet, assassinations of nuclear scientists, and attacks on Iranian-linked facilities in Syria, along with more recent direct military actions targeting Iranian sites.
Turkey says “as long as Netanyahu…”
Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, told the Associated Press on Saturday that there are currently no meaningful attempts to resume talks between the United States and Iran, although he believes Tehran may still be willing to engage in indirect or back-and-forth talks.
“As long as Netanyahu is there, (Israel) will always identify someone as an enemy,” he said. “Because they need it to push their own agenda. If not for Turkey, they would name some other country in the region.”
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Relations between Turkey and Israel remain strained, with Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerging as one of the strongest critics of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Turkey has suspended trade with Israel and repeatedly accuses it of committing genocide.
Turkey on Saturday expressed strong concern over continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon, warning that the campaign could lead to what it described as “another genocide” under the pretext of fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara feared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could escalate the conflict under the pretext and called on the international community to respond quickly to what he called ongoing crimes.
Netanyahu faces an “active” arrest warrant issued by the ICC
Netanyahu faces an active arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in November 2024. The court said there are reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are responsible for alleged crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas war.
These include the alleged war crime of using starvation as a method of waging war and crimes against humanity such as murder and persecution by cutting off basic supplies to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
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But Netanyahu has rejected the allegations, calling the ICC biased and anti-Semitic, while organizations such as Amnesty International have urged him to be brought to justice.
(With input from agencies)
