By: ICEJ News
Posted on: 4 Nov 2019 (All day)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Third Annual Christian Media Summit Sunday evening, devoting part of his address to praising the longstanding support for Israel by its Evangelical Christian friends while also issuing familiar warnings about the threats to Israel from Iran. “We have one main goal and that is to make sure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons and that its march toward an empire and conquest has stopped,” he said. “If it wasn’t for Israel, Iran would already have nuclear weapons.”
Meanwhile, in Teheran, officials with the clerical regime which rules Iran were holding celebrations to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1979 student takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and the subsequent 444-day hostage crisis.
“Our fight with America is over our independence, over not submitting to bullying, over values, beliefs, and our religion,” army chief Major General Abdolrahim Musavi said in a speech at a large street demonstration near the site of the former US Embassy. He added that he believed the US “will continue its hostilities…unless it is crushed.”
“Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100 percent wrong,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying by domestic media at an event on Sunday.
In related news, the US State Department’s new report on terrorism lists Iran as the top international state-sponsor of terrorism and specifically details the aid its given to the Sunni terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
“Iran remains the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism,” said the “Country Reports on Terrorism 2018” which was released on Friday. “The regime has spent nearly one billion dollars per year to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe. Tehran has funded international terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad…Tehran continued to allow an AQ [al-Qaeda] facilitation network to operate in Iran, which sends fighters and money to conflict zones in Afghanistan and Syria, and it has extended sanctuary to AQ members residing in the country.”
“Hezbollah remained Iran’s most powerful terrorist partner and the most capable terrorist organization in Lebanon, controlling areas across the country. Iran’s annual financial backing to Hezbollah – an estimated US $700 million per year – accounts for the overwhelming majority of the group’s annual budget. Hezbollah’s presence in Lebanon and Syria continued to pose a threat to Israel.”