Over the years, Iran has given Israel plenty of reasons to worry. Officials in Tel Aviv have accused Tehran of working on developing weapons of mass destruction and of supporting terrorist entities. Yet despite calls to annihilate the Jewish state, an Israeli expert says the Islamic Republic does not pose an existential threat to his country.
Iran is not on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mind at the moment because he's preoccupied with a political stalemate and efforts to form a coalition to remain in power.
Netanyahu's Obsession?
Until recently, however, this wasn't the case. Before election fever kicked off Iran was Netanyahu's primary concern and his number one enemy.
It was Netanyahu who branded Washington's 2015 nuclear deal with Iran a “historic mistake”, causing a feud with then-President Barack Obama. It was the Israeli PM who played a pivotal role in the 2018 US decision to leave the multilateral agreement and it was he who lashed out at a number of European states for bypassing sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic and doing business with Tehran despite the ban.
Netanyahu's obsession with Iran hasn't faded away with time.
At the beginning of March, he accused the Islamic Republic of attacking an Israeli vessel in the Gulf of Oman, accusations that Tehran denied.
And then he spoke to US Vice President Kamala Harris stressing that he would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, a mantra he repeated in a number of interviews to local media…
