Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Iran’s president-elect Ebrahim Raisi the “Hangman of Tehran”, and contended that “Raisi’s election is… the last chance for the world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement, and to understand who they are doing business with”. “A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands, but millions”, he added. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid likewise called Raisi “an extremist responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iranians… [and] committed to the regime’s nuclear ambitions and to its campaign of global terror”. Lapid also urged “renewed determination to immediately halt Iran’s nuclear program and put an end to its destructive regional ambitions”. The following day, Defence Minister Benny Gantz maintained that Raisi’s “appointment to the position proves that Iran is moving toward radicalisation, proliferation and the continued development of weapons of mass destruction that are liable to threaten the world, the stability of the region and also the State of Israel… Israel will stand firm, and won’t go silently as an existential threat hovers above it. We are preparing and will continue to prepare plans to prevent it”. “We will also share knowledge and information, and coordinate with our friends, first and foremost the U.S.”, he continued. “With this we will always maintain our right, our ability and our duty to independently defend ourselves”.