Former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman lashed out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after confirming the last Israeli strike on an Iranian site in Syria.
"We are operating every day, including yesterday, against Iran and its attempts to establish its presence in the area," Netanyahu said in response to a journalist’s question before leaving for an international conference in Warsaw.
He added, “I can tell you unequivocally that the economic pressure is being felt and that we can see the economic crisis affecting also Iran’s attempts against us. We can see cuts of budgets, cuts of forces, withdrawal of forces, and we can see this in all areas around the world without exception.
“We see it in Syria, we see it in Lebanon, we see it also in Gaza and we also see it in very important weaponry systems that Iran is struggling to deploy because of, among other things, financial problems, and first of all because of Israel’s active military resistance.’’
He wondered if the countries in western Europe and the European Union are deliberately unseeing what Iran is doing. These states are simply disregarding the fact that Iran is sponsoring terrorist groups inside their territories, Netanyahu said.
But Lieberman considered the PM’s statement unnecessary after Netanyahu started to become increasingly open about carrying out air strikes in Syria with an election looming in April.
Sources close to the Israeli premier said that the change in policy has been initiated by outgoing Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot who claimed that Israel attacked Syria several times to prevent Iran from positioning militarily there.
