Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman has alleged that Iran is at the centre of global terrorism and political unrest, insisting that without a change in the present Iranian political leadership there may be no peace in Middle East and part of Africa.
Speaking in Abuja during the screening of the documentary “We Will Dance Again” directed by Yariv Mozer, shown to commemorate the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack, Freeman noted that “the source of this war and the source of the instability is Iran. Iran is responsible and Iran is the backer of Hamas. Iran is the backer of Hezbollah, Hutus and all the instability in the Middle East.”
He further alleged, “They are pumping millions of dollars, billions of dollars, expertise, weapons in order to destabilise the entire region. They know what they are doing,. Iran has also made attempt to destabilise Africa and West Africa and they are beginning their action also in Nigeria.
“Iran under a radical leader is a regime that is sponsoring terror, destruction and mysteries for millions not least for the Iranian people, and the quicker that the world takes action against Iran to remove the leadership and change the leadership the quicker the world will be a better place.
He said: “The world needs to stand together against terrorism. Terrorism in Israel will not stop in Israel. We have seen radical terrorism here in Nigeria like in Israel.
“We have learnt that when it starts in Israel it never finishes there. Countries that face terrorism needs to work together, United to stop it, because I promise you the terrorists are all working together, terrorists do not recognise borders, they do not recognise the states or any other thing.
“So we all need to come together, share our expertise and work together to stop terrorism.
“Israel is ready to share and work togeher with anybody who wants to tackle and stop terrorism.”
Freeman said: “Israel’s demand is very clear that the world understands terrorism, Nigeria has been the victim of terrorism, the particularly extremist terrorism and we will need to stand together, side by side all those countries who are fighting against terrorism to ensure that the world is a better place.
“We need to ensure that Hamas can never carry attack like we just saw again. I will say that what we just saw was one place that was attacked, we hadn’t looked at the villages and communities, we didn’t look at the other 900 people who were murdered and their children in their bedroom, killed and burnt alive, and raped.”
He noted that the ideology of Hamas has shown that there won’t be peace in the Middle East unless they are wiped off.
“Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and want the death of every Jew, that is the words of Hamas.
“Anybody wants to see peace in the Middle East, Hamas must be destroyed.
There cannot be peace while Hamas is still existing.”
The envoy added: “In 2005, Israel left the Gaza Strip, we withdrew all of our soldiers, all of our Jewish citizens, all of the communities, settlement. Since 2005 there haven’t been single Israeli inside the Gaza Strip, when we left there, we left communities, buildings, agriculture settlements, opportunities for people and for Palestinians in Gaza, to build a better future.
“But in 2007, when they elected Hamas and Hamas came into power, since then they have ran a brutal dictatorship and taken all international aids and used it to build terrorism, tunnels and build weapons, if the aids is going to the people, they have impoverished their own people, they created a dynamics where they cannot live, they cannot have decent lifestyle. So if anybody is responsible for what happens it is Hamas.
“Israel has stated clearly we want to have peace with our neighbours. The Palestinians say if you withdraw you will have peace. We withdrew and we received rockets and terrorism. So it is not a reality, the death of any innocent is an absolute tragedy.
“The death of an Israeli or Palestinian child is the same tragedy, the mother mourns, the father mourns, it doesn’t matter. The question is who would we put the blame on for those deaths.
“The Israeli death is clear Hamas murdered in cold bold. In Gaza Israel is doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties.
“Civilian casualties resulted in the fact that Hamas has imbedded itself inside civilian infrastructure, in Gaza. Hamas are inside the hospitals, they are inside the schools, the mosque. They use everything that they can as a structure.
“Hamas unfortunately comes from a wicked ideology that none of us can understand. Every death in Gaza is the fault of Hamas.
“On Oct. 6, there was a cease fire. We weren’t near. Hamas were the ones who started this, and launched this, and we will make sure that Hamas will never be able to do that again.”
Michael Olugbode
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