Daily Times

Iran has responded to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s speech at the UN General Assembly, accusing him of trying to propagate “Iran-phobia” and cleanse Israel’s actions across the region. Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s permanent representative to the UN, said in a tweet on Tuesday that Bennett’s speech was “full of lies”. “That regime is in no position to discuss our peaceful [nuclear] programme when it has hundreds of nuclear warheads,” he wrote, adding that Bennett’s failure to mention Palestine in his speech “illustrates a determination to deprive Palestinian rights”.

In his speech on the final day of the UNGA on Monday, the Israeli prime minister had blasted Iran’s regional activities and support for movements opposed to Israel, claiming that Iran wants to dominate the region “under a nuclear umbrella”.

Bennett claimed Iran’s nuclear programme has hit a “watershed moment” and “all red lines” have been crossed as the country is enriching uranium to 60 percent and the safeguard agreements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are being “violated”.

Meanwhile, he referred to Israel as a “lighthouse in a stormy sea” that wants democracy and freedom, and wishes to build a better world. In a statement, Iran’s mission to the UN called Bennett’s claims “baseless” and said he was deceptively trying to cast Israel in an innocent light. “His malicious goal is clear: to cover up all the Israeli regime’s expansionist and destabilising policies and its criminal behaviour in the region during the past seven decades,” it said.