Calls Iran 'immunity' Over, Israeli PM Naftali Bennett: They Will Pay In Full

PM Israel Naftali Bennett. (Wikimedia Commons/Amit Agronov/Israeli Defence Forces Spokesperson's Unit)

JAKARTA - Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Iran would not go unpunished for inciting attacks through its proxies on Sunday, speaking a week after the assassination in Tehran of a colonel in Iran's elite forces suspected of being against Israel.

Hassan Sayad Khodai, who is accused by Israel of plotting attacks against its citizens around the world, was shot dead at the wheel of his car by two men on motorbikes.

Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency said members of the Israeli intelligence service network had been found and arrested by the Guards immediately after the shooting in Tehran.

The tactics echo previous assassinations in Iran that focused on nuclear scientists and were widely pinned on the Mossad. At least six Iranian scientists and academics have been killed or attacked since 2010, some of them by assailants riding motorbikes, in incidents believed to be targeting Iran's disputed nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at producing bombs.

Prime Minister Bennett's office, which oversees the Mossad intelligence agency, declined to comment on the killing.

However, in a broadcast address to his ministers on Sunday, PM Bennett accused Iran of repeatedly targeting Israeli interests.

"For decades, the Iranian regime has practiced terrorism against Israel and the region through proxies, envoys, but the head of the octopus, Iran itself, has enjoyed immunity," Prime Minister Bennett said.

"As we have said before, the era of the Iranian regime's immunity is over. Those who finance terrorists, those who arm terrorists and those who send terrorists will pay the full price," he added.

It was reported earlier that Iran had promised to avenge Khodai's death and blamed Israel, with President Ebrahim Raisi saying he had no doubts and supported the move.

President Ebrahin Raisi has confirmed Iran will avenge the death of a Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Colonel Sayd Khodai, a day after he was shot dead by two men on motorbikes in Tehran.

"I have agreed that our security forces take this matter seriously, and I have no doubt that revenge for the pure blood of our martyrs will be taken," President Raisi said.

Meanwhile, spokesman for Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps Ramazan Sharif said the assassination only strengthened his troops' determination to confront Iran's enemies, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

"Colonel Khodai's martyrdom strengthens the Revolutionary Guards' determination to defend security, independence and national interests and to confront the enemy of the Iranian nation," he said.

"Thugs and terrorist groups affiliated with global oppression and Zionism will face consequences for their actions," he said.