Iran is on the brink of collapse even while risking conflict with Israel, according to the Jewish state’s top defense official.
“They know that the Iranian regime is in its final days and will soon collapse,” Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Elaph, an Arab-language publication, in an interview noticed by Israeli media Thursday.
Avigdor portrayed Iran as engendered on two fronts, economic and military. An American withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal would cripple the regime’s economy, he suggested, while an Iranian military build-up in Syria risks war with Israel.
“If they attack Tel Aviv, we will attack Tehran,” Lieberman said.
That’s a salvo in the barrage of warnings that clashes between Israel and Iranian-controlled forces in Syria could lead to a more direct clash between the regional powers. Iranian forces — and their Hezbollah terrorist proxies — have spread throughout key Syrian territory in recent years, joining with Russia to rescue President Bashar Assad from being overthrown in a long-running civil war.
Lieberman reiterated that Israel will not allow pro-Iranian forces to entrench themselves on Israel’s border.
“Iran is trying to establish bases in Syria and arm them with advanced weapons,” Lieberman said. “Every military outpost in Syria in which Iran seems to be trying to dig in militarily, we will destroy.”
Iran has responded to such rhetoric by threatening to attack Israel directly.
“If you provide an excuse for Iran, Tel Aviv and Haifa will be razed to the ground,” Ali Shirazi, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in mid-April.
Lieberman said the focus is on preventing an Iranian military build-up on their border. “We won’t allow it, whatever the cost,” he said.
Israel isn’t the only country worried about Iran spreading through Syria.
French President Emmanuel Macron is lobbying President Trump not to withdraw U.S. forces from the country, following the destruction of the Islamic State in Syria, in order to counter Iran.
“I would love to get out,” Trump said during a joint press conference Tuesday with Macron. “With that being said, Emmanuel and myself have discussed the fact that we don’t want to give Iran open season to the Mediterranean, especially since we really control it to a large extent.”
On the other hand, Macron is urging Trump not to withdraw from the nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, because it is currently “control[ling] the nuclear activity of Iran.” The Iranians have threatened to jump-start their nuclear weapons program if the U.S. scraps the pact.
“Iran would certainly return in a short time — not a week or a month but within hours — to a situation more advanced than before the start of negotiations,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in August.
Lieberman thinks the Iranians are bluffing.
“I think that the withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear agreement will lead to the complete collapse of the Iranian economy, which is what they fear,” he told Elaph, per an unofficial translation.
