The Islamic Republic’s proxy forces “are trying to close in on Israel from all sides,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told CNBC.

By JNS

Israeli President Isaac Herzog warned on Wednesday that Iran and its proxies were leading the Middle East to catastrophe, amid the ongoing wars against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The Iranian [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] are leading the entire region into the abyss by ongoing terror,” Herzog said during an interview with CNBC.

“How come a small tribe of 50,000 people in Yemen has ballistic missiles and cruise missiles? Very few nations have [them],” said Herzog, referring to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an Iranian proxy that has repeatedly targeted Israel with missiles and drones, as well as international shipping in the Red Sea.

“Israel did not want this war and is not interested in going to war with Lebanon. But Israel has been attacked … endlessly,” the president added. “These proxies are trying to close in on Israel from all sides of our borders. That’s the real situation now,” he added.

Tehran has been working according to this plan “for years,” he said, adding that its ultimate target was not Israel but “the entire free world.”

On Monday, Iran’s new president said that Israel seeks to drag the Middle East into a full-scale war by provoking Tehran to join the conflict in Lebanon.

“We want to live in peace, we don’t want war. It is Israel that seeks to create this all-out conflict,” said Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City (Sept. 10-28).

“We do not wish to be the cause of instability in the Middle East as its consequences would be irreversible,” he said, adding, “We will defend any group that is defending its rights and itself.”

Pezeshkian did not address Iran’s ongoing effort to obtain nuclear weapons, its promises to wipe Israel off the face of the earth or the fact that Hezbollah initiated the conflict when it began firing missiles on Israel’s north on Oct. 8.