European leaders “don’t get” the danger posed by Iran in the Middle East and beyond, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said in an interview on Sunday.
The Iranian government is providing thousands of drones for use by Russia in its war on Ukraine, and at the same time Tehran is pushing ahead with its nuclear weapons program, Herzog said, describing Iran as an “empire of evil.”
“I think Europe has to wake up and urgently, because they don’t get it,” Herzog said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer.
As Israel faces criticism from its allies over the scale of its assault on Gaza, which has left much of the enclave in ruins amid preparations for an Israeli assault on Rafah, Herzog was clear that Tehran is the real enemy. In response to Iranian drone and missile attacks on Israel last weekend, the Israeli government launched a strike on Iran on Friday.
“If you don’t wake up and be as strong as possible and fight this empire of evil with the coalition that you have in NATO, Europe may pay the price in the future,” said Herzog.
G7 foreign ministers on Friday acknowledged the danger, agreeing that sanctions would be imposed on Tehran should it be found to be supplying ballistic missiles to Moscow.
In the interview, Herzog also rejected calls by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for Israel to hold fresh elections as a way through the political turmoil that has racked the country since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants. “I would recommend to American political leaders not to intervene as such in Israeli politics, but leave it to the Israeli public and the body politic to take its own decision,” said Herzog.
Herzog also said he considered U.S. President Joe Biden to be a “great friend of Israel,” despite the American leader’s calls for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, opposition to a planned assault on Rafah and comments in support of Schumer’s speech.
Mounting attacks in the south of Gaza have taken the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war to more than 34,000 Palestinians killed, according to local health officials, the AP reported.
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