FIGHTING WORDS

Israel’s Netanyahu to Iran: Don’t Test Us

The latest escalation in tensions after a drone intrusion prompted a military confrontation last week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned Iran he’s prepared to go to war if Tehran doesn’t stop “attacking” Israel from positions in Syria. Brandishing what he said was part of an Iranian drone shot down by Israeli forces last week, Netanyahu directly addressed Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the Munich Security Conference. “Do you recognize this? You should. It’s yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran: Do not test Israel’s resolve,” he said. The drone incident prompted a major military confrontation last week, with Israel launching a “large scale attack” on Iranian positions in Syria and an Israeli fighter jet shot down in the ensuing showdown. Netanyahu on Sunday said he will not hesitate to act “not only against Iranian proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself” if there are any further attacks. Zarif later shrugged off Netanyahu’s warning as a “cartoonish circus which does not even deserve the dignity of a response.”