FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not pictured) at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece, January 2, 2020. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Asharq Al-Awsat

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday welcomed the US airstrike that killed Iran's top general, saying President Donald Trump "deserves all the credit for acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively."

Netanyahu said Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, “is responsible for the death of American citizens and many other innocent people. He was planning more such attacks.”

Israel has long viewed Iran as its greatest threat and has carried out airstrikes in recent years against Iran-backed forces in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Netanyahu said Israel "stands with the United States in its just struggle for peace, security and self-defense."

"Just as Israel has the right of self-defense, the United States has exactly the same right," he stated as he boarded a flight home after cutting short a visit to Greece.

Netanyahu’s office said the PM was returning home to follow “ongoing developments" after the US airstrike in Baghdad that killed Soleimani.

The Israeli army has ordered a ski resort on Mount Hermon, on the Israel-controlled Golan Heights, to close.

Yair Lapid, a leader of the opposition Blue and White Party, praised the killing and said Soleimani got “exactly what he deserved.”

The head of the Quds Force topped Israel’s list of threats, accused of masterminding a network of enemies that included Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Yoel Guzansky, an expert on Iran at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Strategic Studies, said Iranian retaliation against US or Israeli targets was likely in the short term.

Guzansky said the killing struck a huge blow to Iran and restored American deterrence in the region.