“Our greatest threat is the existential threat posed by Iran’s efforts to arm itself with nuclear weapons, whether to threaten us directly – with atomic weapons – with the destruction of a small state, or to threaten us with tens of thousands of missiles or a great many missiles backed by a nuclear umbrella,’’ declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the swearing-in ceremony for the new head of Mossad, David Barnea.
‘’This is a threat against the continuation of the Zionist enterprise and we must fight this threat relentlessly,’’ he added.
Barnea, 56 and a father of four, succeeds Yossi Cohen as Director of Israel’s intelligence agency. He joined the Mossad in 1996; from 2013 to 2019, he led the Tzomet Branch. He has served as the agency’s deputy chief since 2019.
In his remarks, Netanyahu said that he told U.S. President Joe Biden: ‘’With or without an agreement, we will continue to do everything in our power to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons.’ Iran is different from the other countries that have nuclear weapons today; therefore, containment is not an option.’’
He added: ‘’If we need to choose – and I hope it will not happen – between friction with our great friend, the US, and getting rid of an existential threat, getting rid of an existential threat will prevail. This first falls on all of you, on the political leadership of the State of Israel and on you David. All of you must do everything, everything, to ensure that Iran will never arm itself with nuclear weapons.”