ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a visit to Kazakhstan Wednesday to send a warning to arch-enemy Iran: Don’t underestimate us, we are tigers, not rabbits.
During a meeting Wednesday morning in Astana with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the host asked Netanyahu whether he could deliver a message to Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, who is set to visit the Central Asian country next week.
Netanyahu replied yes, according to a senior official with knowledge of the details of the discussions. “Ask him why Iran continues to threaten us with annihilation. Don’t you understand: we’re not a rabbit. We’re a tiger,” the prime minister told Nazarbayev.
Netanyahu also told Nazarbayev that “if Iran attacks Israel it will put itself at risk,” the official said, speaking on conditioning of anonymity.
Kazakhstan, a country with a Sunni Muslim majority, has friendly ties with both Israel and Iran. Last year, Nazarbayev congratulated Tehran on the nuclear pact it struck with six world powers, a deal Israel criticized as a historic mistake. READ MORE
