(Dan Tri) – Israel said that a number of Western anti-tank missiles that aided Ukraine in dealing with Russia fell into the hands of armed forces opposing Tel Aviv and appeared near the Israeli border.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Reuters).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that some Western weapons sent to Ukraine had fallen into the hands of Tel Aviv opposition groups near the Israeli border.
He also explained why the Israeli government has a neutral approach to the conflict in Ukraine.
`Israel is in a special situation, different from Poland, Germany, France or any of the Western countries supporting Ukraine. First of all, we have a close military border with Russia. The pilots of
`I think it is important that we maintain our freedom of action in the face of Iran’s efforts to establish military force on our northern border,` he explained.
Last year, Dmitry Medvedev, Vice Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned Israel that sending weapons to Ukraine would `destroy all relations between the two countries`.
In addition, the Israeli Prime Minister emphasized: `Second, we are also concerned that any systems we provide to Ukraine will be used against us because they could fall into the hands of Iran.`
`And by the way, that’s not a hypothesis. That actually happened with the Western anti-tank weapons that we now find near our borders. So we have to be very cautious
After the statement from Israel, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: `We assess the threat of Western weapons granted to Ukraine falling into the hands of third parties to be very, very urgent.`
`We spoke earlier about such a danger. This is an inevitable process and the more such weapons are supplied to Ukraine, they will contain great threats to regional security
Last week, an anonymous senior commander in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Newsweek that Tel Aviv is concerned about the risk of weapons supplied to Ukraine by the US and other Western countries falling into the hands of Ukraine.
`One is that Iran can research weapons, then learn how to produce them. The other problem is that we are very worried that some weapons will fall into the hands of Hezbollah and Hamas – two forces opposed to Israel.
He admitted that Israel is not able to understand clearly and in detail the route and quantity of Western weapons `smuggled` out of Ukraine because Tel Aviv only focuses on the Middle East region, while the movement of the weapons flow
A US State Department official told Newsweek that Washington is well aware of the risks that aid weapons could be smuggled out of Ukraine.