Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israelis “identify with the struggle” of Iranians, as widespread protests against the regime continued in the Islamic Republic.

The demonstrations kicked off last Sunday with shopkeepers staging a strike over economic concerns, but have since ballooned in size and scope.

Though not yet as large as anti-regime protests of earlier years, the demonstrations came in the wake of Israeli and US attacks in June that severely weakened Iran’s military, and as renewed sanctions have battered the country’s already crippled economy.

At the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that during his summit last week with US President Donald Trump in Florida, the pair discussed Iran in depth.

“We reiterated our shared position of zero [uranium] enrichment on the one hand, and the need to remove the 400 kilograms of enriched material from Iran and to subject the sites to strict and genuine oversight,” he said.

“The government of Israel, the State of Israel, and my own policies — we identify with the struggle of the Iranian people, with their aspirations for freedom, liberty and justice,” Netanyahu said. “It is quite possible that we are at a moment when the Iranian people are taking their fate into their own hands.”

Netanyahu’s comments came after senior Israeli officials told Channel 12 in recent days that, though government organs seemed to endorse the protests online, the prime minister himself was abstaining from commenting on the situation in........

© The Times of Israel