Israel is investigating whether the flydubai co-pilot was “sent”, Netanyahu says, as Trump claims Iran may be involved.
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Friday that Israel would impose a “very heavy price” on any power behind the flydubai incident, without offering evidence that any country was responsible.
“As time passes, the picture is becoming clearer: The attacker underwent Islamist radicalisation. He came to crash the plane with all passengers on board,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“We are investigating whether he was sent, and whoever sent him will pay a very heavy price,” Netanyahu said of the co-pilot assailant.
Netanyahu did not identify any country as a potential culprit but for years has been quick to point the finger at Iran, which Israel and the United States attacked in February.
US President Donald Trump, who in April reached a ceasefire with Iran that is now in tatters, said Thursday in response to a question that he was “hearing” that Iran was involved and that the country will “be hit very hard” if so.
Israel and the United States have linked Iran’s Shia clerical state to numerous attacks around the world since the Islamic republic was founded in 1979.
But it has little-known connection to hijackings, hallmarks of Al-Qaeda during the September 11, 2001 attacks and of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the 1960s and 1970s.
Netanyahu has previously said the pilot was from Oman and earlier left open the possibility that he was experiencing mental problems.
Israeli officials and witnesses say the co-pilot of the Tel Aviv-bound flight on Wednesday stabbed the Indian pilot, who let passengers come into the cockpit to overpower the attacker. The plane made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia with no deaths.