Israel cannot provide the Iron Dome anti-missile system to Ukraine due to concerns that it could fall into hands of Iran and be used against Israeli citizens, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
"I think it's important to understand that we are concerned also with the possibility that systems that we would give to Ukraine would fall into Iranian hands and could be reverse engineered and we would find ourselves facing Israeli systems used against Israel ... Now if that system [Iron Dome] were to fall in the hands of Iran, then millions of Israelis would be left defenceless," Netanyahu told The Wall Street Journal.
At the same time, the prime minister said that Israel was not neutral in the Ukraine conflict, and it had provided assistance to the Ukrainian government.
"The former government made some promises, which were in the process [regarding aid to Ukraine]. Well, they weren't delivered, but I delivered them. And I think people know, maybe you should find out what's going on, but we're not neutral. We've expressed our sympathy and our position with Ukraine," Netanyahu said, adding, however, that there were still "limitations" that Israel had in terms of its support for Kiev.
Last week, Netanyahu said that there had already been multiple cases when weapons supplied to Kiev by the West were found near the Israeli border.
Western countries have been providing financial, humanitarian and military support to Ukraine since the start of Russia's military operation in February 2022.
The support evolved from lighter artillery munitions and training in 2022 to heavier weapons, including tanks, later that year and in 2023.
For months, Ukraine has been pushing to be supplied with Israel's Iron Dome system, which has been met with resistance by the Israeli government so far.
The Kremlin has repeatedly warned against continued arms deliveries to Kiev.