Netanyahu: Iran within Range of Israeli Airstrikes

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Tuesday that it was within range of Israeli airstrikes.

“Iran recently has been threatening Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu said at an Israeli air force base, where he viewed a squadron of advanced US-built F-35 warplanes.

"It would do well to remember that these planes can reach anywhere in the Middle East, including Iran and certainly Syria."

Last week, a senior Iranian parliamentarian was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that if the United States attacked Iran, Israel would be destroyed in half an hour.

Netanyahu has issued a series of statements against Iran in recent weeks.

They follow Tehran’s decision to begin breaching some commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and attacks in the Gulf that Israel and the United States blame on Iran.

On Sunday, Netanyahu called an announcement by Iran that it would exceed the uranium enrichment cap set by the troubled accord a "very dangerous step".

He urged European countries to sanction Iran in response.

On Monday, Iran breached the enrichment cap as it seeks to press other parties into keeping their side of the bargain under the nuclear deal.

Netanyahu opposed the accord and urged US President Donald Trump to withdraw from it, which he did in May 2018.

Israel has long said that every option is on the table in ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon, and has backed pledges to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in Syria by carrying out airstrikes there.

Tehran denies seeking nuclear arms.