Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told the Security Council on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran spends $7 billion annually on terror activities in Middle East, sponsoring wars in Syria, Yemen and Iraq, while the Iranian economy is on the brink of collapse.
“The Iranian regime’s obsession with Israel is not just well-known. It is expensive,” The Algemeiner quoted him saying. “Seven billion dollars annually are directed toward the never-ending attempts to destroy Israel. Follow the bloody trail of money starting in Tehran and you will arrive at the terror tunnels in Lebanon and Gaza and the weapons warehouses in Syria. It is now trying to infiltrate Judea and Samaria,” Danon added.
The nuclear deal was sold with the promise that the regime would use its windfall for domestic purposes. In an interview with Al Arabiya in July 2016, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said that “the vast majority of these resources are likely to go to the Iranian economy, which is in a terrible state, and address certain debts of the Iranian government.”
But instead the money was spent on foreign military campaigns and terrorism. In June, Iranian demonstrators chanted “Death to Palestine,” “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon” and “Leave Syria and think of us,” in videos posted on social media that protested the mullah regime’s foreign adventurism. Other protesters were heard saying, “We don’t want the ayatollahs” and “Death to the dictator.”
Former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot told The New York Times that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QC) commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani had 3,000 troops in Syria. They were supported by 8,000 Hezbollah fighters and 11,000 foreign Shiite fighters. In August 2016, an Iranian general boasted that the “Shia liberation army” being created in Syria had “the objective that, God willing, we will not have anything called Israel in 23 years.”
Danon warned that “With the help of Saleh Al-Arouri, Hamas’ deputy political chief, and Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian branch of the Iranian Quds Force, Iran is trying to turn Judea and Samaria into a fourth military front against Israel.”
Danon continued: “The world’s silence allows Iran to continue with its operations and aggression to undermine stability in the Middle East.” He urged the Security Council to blacklist Hamas and Hezbollah, explaining that “weakening these terrorist organizations is the first step to dismantling the epicenter of terrorism that sits in Tehran.”
[Photo: United Nations / YouTube ]