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Herzog to CNN: ‘There are limitations on supplying Ukraine with air defense systems’

President Isaac Herzog spoke to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday and was pressed about the aid that Israel provides to Ukraine.

Herzog explained there are limitations that prevent Israel from supplying Ukraine with certain air defense systems, but also said Israel was willing to supply non-lethal products.

  • “There are weapons that we don’t even have an export version for. There are things that we don’t want them to fall in the hands of our enemies. There are secrets that we can’t deliver. But wherever we can help, we’re trying to help,” the President said.

Herzog took exception to criticism about Israel’s stance on supplying weaponry, noting that the US and Europe have declined to provide some military equipment to the Kyiv government.

He also noted that Israel was “analyzing the situation” when it comes to the Russian deployment of Iranian-made drones in the conflict.

Israel has delivered several tons of humanitarian assistance and defensive equipment to Ukraine during the war, but has stopped short of selling advanced weapons to Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been critical of Israel due to this refusal, having recently denounced the lack of aid from Israel during the war with Russia, saying his country got “nothing” from Israel.

Earlier this week, Zelenskyy claimed that Israel’s refusal to provide military aid to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion of his country caused the current military alliance between Russia and Iran.

  • On Wednesday, however, the Ukrainian President said he sees a “positive trend” in Kyiv’s relations with Israel after the two countries shared intelligence about Russia’s purported use of hundreds of Iranian drones in the war in Ukraine.
  • Zelenskyy also said Russia has so far used around 400 Iranian-made drones to attack Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure since the invasion started.

In the CNN interview, Herzog responded that he didn’t have specific information about such a deal, but that there was no further proof needed to demonstrate that Iran was a danger to “world order and stability.”

On Iran’s involvement in the war in Ukraine, Herzog said,

  • “The fact that Iran, following its activities in killing its own citizens, in working towards nuclear weapons endlessly, endangering the entire world and the region—and now killing innocent civilians in Ukraine, clearly that gives you a picture of what Iran is all about and that was the main point of my meeting with President Biden.”

He also spoke about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, saying,

  • “Today, forty days to the death of Mahsa, in Iran, the heroic woman who was killed by the Iranian regime, you have thousands of Iranian citizens who are harassed, tortured, arrested, and killed by a vicious and malicious regime, as they are protesting for their own civil rights and liberties. Against the human feeling of freedom and independence, the Iranian regime is crushing them. And now, moving forward on the nuclear program, which will endanger the entire region and the world. And you want another proof? They have supplied hundreds of drones in order to kill innocent civilians in Ukraine, so what else does the world need in order to understand that Iran is an extremely dangerous country to world order and stability?”
  • On Tuesday, Herzog participated in an Atlantic Council event in Washington, D.C., in which he presented intelligence establishing the use of Iranian-manufactured UAVs against civilians in the war against Ukraine.

“Innocent civilians in Ukraine are being killed and hurt and wounded and are suffering from Iranian weapons. Iran flatly denied supplying drones to the war against Ukraine. I want to show you two slides that unequivocally prove that Iranian drones are participating in the war in Ukraine against innocent Ukrainian civilians. I want to point out that Iran has kept on supplying these drones and they are attacking all over Ukraine with suicide drones, special UAVs that are meant to create havoc in large scope,” said Herzog.

Source: Arutz Sheva