March 9 (Reuters) – Israel’s U.N. ambassador Danny Danon said on Monday that the new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, has the same radical ideas as in the past and Israel will target anyone who promotes radical ideas against it.
“Changing the man at the top does not change the regime,” Danon told reporters at the United Nations when asked about Iran’s naming of Khamenei to replace his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran at the end of last month.
“The new leader, unfortunately, is more of the same ideology, the same radical ideas, and … anyone who will promote those radical ideas against us, we will target them, we will find them,” Danon said.
Danon said the people of Iran should rise up to choose their next leader and added: “We will have to create the conditions for them, and that is what we are doing now.”
Asked about the threat to crucial energy traffic in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s attacks against neighboring countries, Danon said Israel and the U.S. were hunting Iran’s missile launchers and degrading its capabilities.
“So it’s going to be harder for them to attack civilians in Dubai and to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. It doesn’t mean it will be 100% guaranteed, but it will be harder for them to do that.
“So I’m optimistic about that. Every day we see the numbers of attacks, going down,” Danon said.
The war has effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas is shipped along Iran’s coast.
(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by David Ljunggren and Mark Porter)
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