Israel’s myth of invincibility has crumbled: Zarif

Munich. Iran's foreign minister on Sunday slammed Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu for staging a "cartoonish circus" after the hardline Israeli premier brandished what he said was a piece of an Iranian drone shot down by Israel.

"You were the audience for a cartoonish circus just this morning which does not even deserve the dignity of a response," Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif said at the Munich Security Conference, as he took to the stage shortly after Netanyahu's fiery speech.

Zarif said some at the conference "resort to cartoons to justify strategic blunders or maybe avoid domestic crisis," possibly hinting at Netanyahu's legal trouble at home.

Netanyahu, who spoke earlier at the conference, held up a piece of an Iranian drone Israel shot down last week, and asked Zarif, who was sitting in the crowd: "Do you recognize it? You should, it's yours. Don't test us."

When asked about Netanyahu's speech, and what should happen for Iran to recognize Israel, Zarif accused the prime minister of using "aggression as a policy."

"The entire speech was trying to evade issue. What has happened is the so-called invincibility has crumbled. Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbors."

Zarif referred to an incident earlier this month in which an Israeli F-16 fighter jet was downed while striking targets in Syria, in response to an alleged Iranian drone that Tel Aviv said violated its airspace.

Zarif denounced what he said were Israel's "almost daily illegal incursions into Syrian airspace and bombings there." He said Israel was trying "to create these cartoonish images to blame others for its own strategic blunders, or maybe to evade the domestic crisis they're facing."

"Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it's as if a disaster has happened," Zarif said.

"Israel's major problems are its years-long criminal occupation policies, and I'm not even talking about its corruption," Zarif said.

Read: Full Text of Speech

When asked about what would Iran do if the United States happened to abandon the nuclear deal, Zarif said Iran will respond "seriously" if its interests are not secure, adding that the world will be "sorry for taking this erroneous course of action."

Zarif however said that the deal was struck the accord "in spite" of Netanyauh, adding that the world "will maintain" the agreement, "despite his [Netanyahu's] delusional attempts" to dismantle it."

Meanwhile Lebanese Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf reacting to Netanyahu's threat said his country is prepared to defend itself if Israel launches strikes on its territory.

Netanyahu had said Israel would "act if necessary" against Iran and its proxies, such as the Lebanese party Hezbollah.

Sarraf told participants at the conference he'd had "an Israeli drone above my head for the past 15 years" but that his country has "no belligerent intent" against anyone.

But he says "we will defend ourselves" and that "we are for peace, yet we will not stand for any threat and we will not accept any aggression."

Netanyahu says an international agreement with Iran has emboldened the regime in Tehran to become increasingly aggressive in the region.

Netanyahu told world leaders, defense officials and diplomats at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday the agreement has "unleashed a dangerous Iranian tiger in our region and beyond."