The downing of an Israeli jet after it bombed an Iranian site in Syria shattered Israel's "so-called invincibility," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday.
Reacting to a critical speech delivered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Zarif told the Munich Security Conference that "Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbors," and accused Israel of "mass reprisals against its neighbors and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon."
"Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it's as if a disaster has happened," Zarif said.
In a speech to the conference hours earlier, Netanyahu accused Iran of trying to impose an "empire" across the Middle East. He spoke while holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone.
"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," Netanyahu told the conference.
Zarif retaliated that Netanyahu's holding of the fragment was a "comedy circus" that did "not even deserve the dignity of a response."
"What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility [of Israel] has crumbled," Zarif said, referring to the downing of an Israeli F-16 jet on Feb. 10.
In an interview with NBC News on the sidelines of the conference, Zarif responded to Netanyahu's vow to act against Iran if necessary by retorting, "Well, if they try to exercise that threat, they will see the response."
Meanwhile, around 50 people took part in a protest against the Iranian regime at Munich's Stachus Square, close to the conference venue. The protest was organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran and timed to coincide with Zarif's speech.
Former Israeli Air Force chief David Ivry told Reuters earlier that he believed the Feb. 10 incident was the first time an Israeli F-16 had been brought down since Israel began using the jets in the 1980s.
The jet was hit by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile as it was returning from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria. It was one of at least eight Israeli planes that had been sent on the raid in response to what Israel said was an Iranian drone's incursion into its airspace earlier that day.
The jet crashed in northern Israel after its pilot and co-pilot ejected successfully, according to an Israeli official.
