In address to Iran, Netanyahu says nowhere in Middle East out of Israel's reach

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Iranians on Monday that there was nowhere in the Middle East beyond Israel's reach, three days after Israel's military killed the leader of Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Netanyahu, speaking in English in a 3-minute-long video released by his office in which he said he was addressing the Iranian people, blamed the Iranian government for plunging the Middle East "deeper into war" at the cost of its own people.

"There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country," Netanyahu said.

He said the Iranian government was bringing Iranians "closer to the abyss". Iran and Israel would be at peace when Iran is "finally free", which he said would "come a lot sooner than people think".

Referring to Hezbollah's Hassan Nasrallah, killed on Friday in Israeli airstrikes on Beirut, Netanyahu said that "puppets" of the Iranian "regime" were eliminated every day.

Israel has ramped up attacks on militant targets in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the best armed of militant groups across the Middle East aligned with Iran.

-(Reuters)