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‘Degenerate gambler’: Iran FM says Netanyahu seeking to save himself with ‘US blood and treasure’

The Iranian foreign minister says the Israeli prime minister is desperately trying to evade justice at the expense of American lives and resources.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is desperately trying to evade justice by sacrificing more American lives and resources.

In a post on his X account on Saturday, Araghchi said Netanyahu is a “wanted war criminal” who is responsible for the deaths of Arabs, Americans and Iranians.

He added that the Israeli prime minister is seeking to evade justice while showing no regard for the lives of his own people.

The top Iranian diplomat likened Netanyahu to a “degenerate gambler,” saying he was desperately trying to save himself by spilling more American blood and squandering US resources.

“Even US Senators want out,” Araghchi wrote.

The Iranian foreign minister attached a video to his post featuring Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, a former senior aide to Netanyahu, who has renewed criticism of the Israeli prime minister over the events of October 7, 2023.

Gil, who served as Netanyahu’s military secretary from July 2021 to May 2024, has said that the Israeli leader was warned internally of the potential for war ahead of the October 7 attacks and that there remained “enormous gaps” between what the public knows and what really happened.

Gil woke up the Israeli prime minister on the morning of the deadliest attacks in its history. His comments put fresh pressure just weeks before a critical election that will determine Netanyahu’s political future.

Late in February, 36 former Israeli officials, including five former heads of the spy agency Shin Bet, have said Netanyahu bears sole responsibility for the military and intelligence failures that enabled the al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7, 2023.

The al-Aqsa Flood Operation involved coordinated armed strikes from the Gaza Strip into southern Israeli-occupied Palestine, carried out by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups on October 7, 2023.

Hamas described the Operation as a response to ongoing Israeli occupation, the blockade of Gaza, illegal settlement expansion, and rising settler violence.

In retaliation, Israel has launched a genocidal campaign against Gaza, killing more than 74,000 Palestinians and wounding 175,000, most of them women and children.