IDF Chief: Iran Must Not Become the Next North Korea

“We are not interfering in the fighting in Syria. We are only engaged in preventing weapons from reaching the hands of those who seek to harm the state of Israel,” IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot said during his keynote speech at the 17th Herzliya Conference.

Addressing the threat from Iran, Eizenkot declared that keeping Iran from developing its military industry is a regional goal, and stressed that “Iran must not become the next North Korea.”

Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, is currently the main threat to Israeli security. The terrorist militia has spread itself over some 200 towns and cities in southern Lebanon, and has assembled an arsenal of tens of thousands of rockets and missiles.

Hezbollah receives approximately $800 million a year from Tehran. “But we see the Iranian influence not only in Lebanon, but in Syria and Gaza, on Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Regarding the campaign against Islamic State, Eizenkot said that “I can tell you [with due] modest[y] that the IDF contributes to the U.S. military and the coalition in the Middle East. One can see the cooperation with the moderate Sunni states, which has continued to improve, both openly and secretly.”