Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran over escalation tension between the two countries, saying that, threatening Israel would lead to dangerous consequences for Iran. Netanyahu's remarks came during his first trip to the ex-Soviet nation, Kazakhstan as an Israeli leader.

During talks with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, he asked the Kazakh president to convey his message to Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, saying that, "Israel isn't a rabbit, it's a tiger," as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Since the election of Donald Trump, Israel has escalated the rhetoric against Iran. Nationalist and pro-settler Israeli legislators welcomed the U.S. President-elect Trump, seeing his rise as offering Israel a freer hand in settlement policies. Israeli lawmakers have tried to gauge how Trump will address the issue of Israel's West Bank settlement construction, which the U.S. and much of the international community view as illegal and an obstacle to peace. Following Netanyahu's talks with President Nazarbayev, the two countries on Tuesday signed agreements on cooperation in scientific research, civil aviation, medicine and agriculture. They also agreed to work more closely together in fighting terrorism. Netanyahu commended Nazarbayev, who has led Kazakhstan for 27 years, first as its Communist boss and then as president, for creating an atmosphere of tolerance in the Central Asian nation. He said Jews who came from Kazakhstan to Israel "speak very warmly of Kazakhstan and of the attitude towards all religions here." He hailed agreements to bolster ties between Israel and Kazakhstan, saying that "this example of Muslim-Jewish cooperation is something that reverberates throughout the world."