Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday refuted Iran’s accusations that the United States and Israel were responsible for the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, instead accusing Tehran of trying to create an “eastern front” on the Jordanian border.
The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran, today accused Israel of being responsible for the fall of former Syrian President Assad,” Mr. Katz said during of a visit to the Jordanian border with army leaders.
He added that Mr. Khamenei “should rather blame himself” for investing in armed groups “in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza to build the weapons of the octopus he leads to try to defeat the State of Israel.
“I came here today to ensure that Iran will not succeed in building the octopus that it plans to establish here to create an eastern front against the State of Israel,” he said. said, suggesting that Iran was behind Jordan’s “attempts to smuggle weapons, finance terrorism and promote terrorism” into the West Bank, territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
Mr. Katz said he had asked the army to “intensify offensive operations against any terrorist activity” and “to accelerate the construction of the fence on the Israeli-Jordanian border.”
Mr. Khamenei, who has the final say in his country’s affairs, accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad, in his first speech since the former Syrian president’s fall on Sunday.
“There is no doubt that what happened in Syria is the result of a conspiracy by the United States and (Israel),” assured Mr. Khamenei.
Bashar al-Assad has long played a strategic role in Iran’s anti-Israeli “axis of resistance”, notably by facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This axis also includes Palestinian Hamas, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq.
With AFP
Canada
