Ya'alon: Every Iranian embassy in the world is a base for terrorism

Defense Minister says Iranians have built a terror infrastructure in South America, designed to target Jews, Israelis.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Ya'alon with Guatemalan president 370 (photo credit: Ariel Hermony/Defense Ministry)
Ya'alon with Guatemalan president 370
(photo credit: Ariel Hermony/Defense Ministry)
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned Monday that every Iranian embassy throughout the world also serves as a base for gathering intelligence and planning terror activities.
Speaking during a meeting with visiting Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, Ya’alon said that Israel was “following with concern all of Iran’s activities in the world, because we have been hit by their terror in Argentina, Bulgaria and India.”
Ya’alon accused the Iranians of using the diplomatic mail service to transfer bombs and weapons.
He said that Israel knows of Iranian terror bases in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Bolivia, both at their embassies and among the local Shi’ite populations.
“They have built this infrastructure for potential attacks against Jews, Israelis and Israeli interests, but it is also important to them as an infrastructure for possible action in the United States, the defense minister said.
Ya’alon charged the Iranians with using drug-smuggling channels to smuggle weapons into the United States, citing the planned assassination of the Saudi ambassador to Washington two years ago.
“This all points to the intentions of the Iranian regime. The terror infrastructure they are building throughout the world is giving them ambition for their goal to export their Shi’ite revolution to the entire world,” Ya’alon said.
The defense minister stated the Iranians were involved in every conflict in the Middle East, as well, and were lending support to every group fighting Israel and the West.
Ya’alon said that the Iranian ambition for hegemony in the region and in the world makes it doubly important that they not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
“It’s a threat against the stability of the entire world, and therefore we are insisting that, one way or another, they must never have a bomb,” he added.