Israel's top envoy in Taiwan today said that her country's decision to attack Iran was an "act of self-defense.”
"For us, defending our country is something that we must do, and we needed to act on time before it's too late, before they [Iran] have a nuclear atomic bomb," Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei Representative Maya Yaron told a news conference in Taipei.
Operation Rising Lion aims to neutralize Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs so that Israel no longer faces an immediate existential threat, she said.
Photo: CNA
Israel is smaller in size and has a smaller population than Taiwan, and is facing the threat of 10,000 missiles from Iran, Yaron said.
Iran is a "radical Islamist regime," "a dictatorship" and "the most repressive government in the world," she said.
"Everything that you know about Taiwan's way of life, about Taiwan's vibrant democracy, does not exist in Iran. No women's rights, no LGBTQI, no freedom of press, no freedom of speech. There is no democracy. There is only oppression. This is a terrorist regime that is acting against its own people," Yaron said.
"We who belong to the free world and we [who] are in this community together, we must remain aware and we must be united in front of any tactics that try to distort us from this truth," she said, speaking about an Israel-Iran war misinformation campaign.
"There is no other alternative. We cannot have this regime have nuclear weapons," she added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu has made multiple claims about the "imminent threat" of Iran developing nuclear weapons dating back to 1992.
On March 25, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, speaking at a US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing for the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community, said that Iran was not building nuclear weapons and had not resumed its suspended 2003 nuclear weapons program.
Asked whether Iran was developing nuclear weapons in an interview with CNN on Tuesday last week, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi said: "We did not have any proof of a systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon."
Israel is widely believed to have its own extensive nuclear weapons program, but unlike Iran, has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and does not grant the IAEA full access to its nuclear facilities.
The conflict between Israel and Iran began on June 13, when Israel launched a series of attacks on key Iranian military and nuclear facilities, killing some of Iran's top military leaders, nuclear scientists and politicians.
Iran retaliated by launching missiles toward military sites and cities in Israel.
Yesterday, the US bombed three Iranian nuclear sites.
Tehran said the US would "receive a response" and that all US bases in the Middle East were "legitimate targets," hinting at a potential wider conflict.
In Taipei, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said that the government's national security team has been closely monitoring tensions in the Middle East and regularly briefing President William Lai (賴清德).
Lai has instructed the national security team and the executive branch to remain alert and respond to potential political and economic risks, Kuo said.
The government would continue to maintain close contact with its allies to ensure stability and the safety of Taiwanese, she added.
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