Israel faces a wide variety of threats ranging from Islamic militants
wielding missiles and rockets to nuclear attack, Israeli Defence
Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday during a visit to the United
States.
Yaalon was speaking with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter
at the National Defence University in Washington. Carter emphasized the
importance of the U.S.-Israeli security relationship and the United
States' commitment to maintaining close ties.
Carter and Yaalon
are due to visit the Naval Air Station in Maryland on Wednesday for a
demonstration of the F-35 joint strike fighter. The United States has
said it will deliver the F-35 to Israel next year, making it the only
country in the Middle East to have the top-flight aircraft.
Yaalon
ticked off a number of threats that he said Israel has faced, including
from Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Bashar al-Assad's Syria, and Iran.
"The
threat has been changed dramatically from conventional type warfare to
what might be called super-conventional, weapons of mass destruction, or
sub-conventional like terror, rockets, and missiles," Yaalon said.
Close
US-Israeli ties have come under strain in recent months over a nuclear
agreement negotiated between Iran and the United States and other world
powers, which Israeli officials have denounced as empowering Iran and
endangering Israel.
Yaalon said the deal, which was agreed in July
and imposes curbs on Iran's nuclear program in return for the removal
of some economic sanctions, could delay an Iranian nuclear threat
against Israel.
"Yes, for the time being, for about a decade or
so, it [Iran's nuclear programme] might be postponed as a threat against
us," Yaalon said, adding that the Iranian government had not given up
its "vision of having a military nuclear capability."
Iran denies ever pursuing a nuclear weapons program, and said that it wanted nuclear capability only for civilian purposes.
Yaalon
also addressed on-going strife between Israelis and Palestinians.
Violence has flared in Israel, Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and the
Gaza Strip in recent weeks, in part triggered by Palestinians' anger
over what they see as Jewish encroachment on Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque
compound.
Yaalon said claims that Israel had violated agreements related to the holy site were false.
Last
week, US Secretary of State John Kerry voiced cautious hope that there
may be a way to defuse the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Israel faces threats ranging from rockets to nuclear -defense minister
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