Iranian immunity over, Israeli Prime Minister

In a hint to possible Israeli involvement in the recent assassination of an Iranian military officer, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that Iran would not go unpunished for instigating attacks through its proxies. 

IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodai was shot dead last week while sitting in his car and by two people on a motorcycle. The tactic echoed previous killings in Iran that focused on nuclear scientists and were widely pinned on Mossad.

"For many years, the Iranian regime has carried out terrorism against Israel and the region via proxies but for some reason the head of the octopus – Iran itself – has enjoyed immunity," Bennett said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.  "As we have said more than once, the era of immunity for the Iranian regime is over." 

"Those who finance terrorists, those who arm terrorists, and those who send terrorists – will pay the full price," he added.

In another attack on Thursday, an Iranian engineer was killed in an explosion said to have been caused by drones carrying explosives at the Parchin military base, where Iran has allegedly conducted nuclear weapons tests in the past. 

Israel has been on high alert over the last week amid concern that Iran will try to retaliate for Khodai's death. On Saturday, Iran revealed images from an underground secret drone base that it operates, amid simmering tensions in the Gulf.  State TV said 100 drones were being kept in the heart of the Zagros Mountains, including Ababil-5, which it said were fitted with Qaem-9 missiles, an Iranian-made version of air-to-surface US Hellfire.

At the government meeting Bennett recalled a story published last week in the Wall Street Journal claiming that a cache of 100,000 documents Israel spirited out of Tehran in 2018 included evidence that the Islamic Republic had used reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency to hide its former nuclear program.

"Iran has also been investing in lies such as its deliberate misleading of the IAEA in order to evade visits by the agency, as was revealed last week. The Iranian regime is based on tyranny, terror and lies," Bennett stated.

Bennett spoke in advance of a visit to Washington this week by an Israeli delegation led by National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata to discuss options should talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal fail. 

They are also likely to discuss the upcoming IAEA Board of Governors' Meeting in Vienna next week and the possibility of a resolution condemning Iran.