Iran warns U.S. not to tie their destiny to the fate of Israel’s Netanyahu

Iran’s foreign minister warned the U.S. not to “tie their destiny” to the fate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said Washington’s full support for Israel is “the root of insecurity in the region.”

“The U.S. should not, Mr. [Joe] Biden should not tie their destiny to the fate of Netanyahu,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

His comments came as the Israel-Hamas war drags beyond its 100th day.

The U.S. has expressed steadfast support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

Palestinian militant group Hamas infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages.

In the aftermath of the attack, U.S. President Joe Biden flew to the country in a show of solidarity, pledging billions of dollars in military support. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has since visited Israel several times since.

“The full-scale cooperation of Biden and the White House with thugs like Netanyahu in Israel is the root of insecurity in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian added.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Iran wants the U.S. to “stop the war in Gaza,” Amir-Abdollahian said, stressing that security in the Red Sea is important to his country.

He sought to deny claims that the Islamic Republic is aiding Yemen-based Houthi rebels, who have disrupted global trade in their attacks of commercial vessels transiting through the Red Sea.

“The people of Yemen and other countries in the region who defend the Palestinian people are acting according to their own experience and through their own interests, and they are not receiving any orders or instructions from us,” he said.

The Houthi militia group began their drone and missile attacks on shipping vessels and cargo ships traversing the Red Sea late last year, making clear their intention of targeting Israeli ships and any others headed to or from Israel in retaliation for the war in Gaza that has so far killed more than 24,000 people there. 

On Monday, the Houthis fired an anti-ship ballistic missile at a U.S.-owned commercial vessel, the U.S. Central Command said.

“Maritime security is of paramount importance to us, because we export oil,” the Iranian minister said. “So if there is insecurity near our vicinity, it will not be in our favor.”

“We believe that any action to destabilize the region is rooted in Israel and its genocide in Gaza.”

Iran backs Hamas in its war with Israel, and continues to supply Lebanese militant group Hezbollah with weapons.

Yemeni officials, who are opposed to the Houthi rebels fighting the government, have repeatedly accused Iran and Hezbollah of providing military and financial support to the militia group. Iranian and Hezbollah officials have denied those allegations.

In a bid to protect the flow of international commerce, the U.S. and its allies began conducting strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen last week.

“These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world’s most critical commercial routes,” Biden said at the time.

While the U.S. has carried out strikes on Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq since the outbreak of the Gaza war, that would mark the first strike against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

The chief negotiator for Yemen’s Houthis remained defiant on Monday, saying the Red Sea attacks aimed at stopping Israeli ships will continue as they again called for an end to the war in Gaza.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, cautioned in a televised speech last week that any American attack on the group will not go without response.

In what could fuel a conflagration of the existing conflict, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Tuesday launched ballistic missiles at what is believed to be Israeli “spy headquarters” in northern Iraq, and at “anti-Iran terror groups” in Syria.

Defending Iran’s actions, Amir-Abdollahian said the Iranian armed forces’ attacks were “in line with combating terrorism and legitimate self-defense.”

“We have no reservations when it comes to securing our national interest with any other country,” he added.