Israel Exposes Iran’s $7 B. Annual Investement in Terrorism
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held its monthly session on the Situation in the Middle East, focusing as usual on Israel’s actions in the region.
During the meeting, Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon revealed to the Council members that Iran is trying to act against Israel from within the Palestinian Authority (PA) while exposing the Islamic Republic annual budget dedicated to operating terrorist networks throughout the Middle East.
Danon addressed the Iranian missile fired at the Hermon from Syria on Sunday which was intercepted by the Iron Dome system and which prompted Israel to conduct a broad strike on Iranian targets in Syria, stating that “Iran is exploiting the [Syrian] regime to conduct military operations against Israel, but we will respond with force and remove any threat to our people.”
Commenting on the attack on the Israeli ski resort, an IDF spokesman noted that the missile was Iranian made, fired from an Iranian launcher by an Iranian team.
“The Iranian regime’s obsession with Israel is not just well-known. It is expensive. Seven billion dollars annually are directed toward the never-ending attempts to destroy Israel,” Danon charged.
“Follow the bloody trail of money starting in Tehran and you will arrive at the terror tunnels in Lebanon and Gaza and the weapons warehouses in Syria. It is now trying to infiltrate Judea and Samaria,” Danon told the UNSC as he displayed a map showing the extent of Iran’s financial support of terrorism in the Middle East.
Danon revealed that acting with the help of Saleh Al-Arouri, Hamas’s Deputy Political Chief, and Saeed Izadi, the head of the Palestinian branch of the Iranian Quds Force, “Iran is trying to turn Judea and Samaria into a fourth military front against Israel. The world’s silence allows Iran to continue with its operations and aggression to undermine stability in the Middle East.”
Danon called on the Security Council to recognize Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations and impose sanctions on them, adding that “weakening these terrorist organizations is the first step to dismantling the epicenter of terrorism that sits in Tehran.”
Details of Iran’s annual budget for terrorism in the Middle East shows that the Islamic Republic invests $4 billion in Syria, $1 billion in Hezbollah in Lebanon, hundreds of millions of dollars in Shi’ite militias in Iraq, tens of millions of dollars for Houthi rebels in Yemen, as well as $50 million for Hamas and another $70 million for the Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the Trump administration said in an annual report on global terrorism in September.
The State Department’s annual survey of global terrorism accused Iran of intensifying numerous conflicts and trying to undermine governments throughout the Middle East and beyond. Iran’s “terrorist affiliates and proxies,” the report said, “demonstrated a near-global terrorist reach.