‘War with Iran ending lot faster,’ says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu claimed the US-Israel operation's first phase obliterated Iran's missile stockpiles, drone arsenal, nuclear infrastructure, and now targets factories rebuilding them.
"We are winning and Iran is being decimated," he told reporters.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (local time) said, ‘I also see this war ending a lot faster than people think."

The remarks came during a live press conference, Israeli PM debunked death rumors saying, “I am alive and you are all witnesses..”

While speaking about the Operation Roaring Lion, the Prime Minister said that after 20 days of joint US-Israeli strikes, Iran no longer has the capability to enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles.

Netanyahu claimed the US-Israel operation's first phase obliterated Iran's missile stockpiles, drone arsenal, nuclear infrastructure, and now targets factories rebuilding them.
"We are winning and Iran is being decimated," he told reporters.

"Iran's missile and drone arsenal is massively degraded and will be destroyed. Hundreds of launchers gone, stockpiles hammered, and production industries wiped out. In Rising Lion, we hit the missiles and infrastructure; now we're erasing the factories making their components ending their entire industrial base” he added.

On Iran’s leadership, he said, "I'm not sure who's running Iran right now. Mojtaba, the replacement ayatollah, has not shown his face... What we see is that there is a lot of tensions inside the people who are edging for the top.

"We're seeing cracks, and we're trying to propagate them as fast as we can, not only in the top command, but we're seeing cracks in the field."

Responding to questions about a potential post-regime scenario, Netanyahu said, "You want a transitional leader. You don't want to replace one Ayatollah with another, you don't want to replace Hitler with Himmler."

He added that any change would ultimately depend on the Iranian people. "It's up to the Iranian people to... choose the moment and to rise to the moment. We can create the conditions, but they have to exploit those conditions," he said.

He also reiterated that regime change cannot be achieved through air power alone. "You can't do revolutions from the air... There has to be a ground component as well," he said, while declining to elaborate on possible strategies.

On the economic front, Netanyahu said Israel is supporting US-led efforts to stabilise global energy markets by reopening key shipping routes.

“Americans are working very hard... to open the Strait of Hormuz. And if they succeed, which I think they will, then oil prices will come down," he said.

Israeli Prime Minister also debunked news of Israel draging US into the war, “And I want to close these opening remarks with one other fake news, and that is that Israel somehow dragged the US into a conflict with Iran. Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on,” said Netanyahu.

“Together in close coordination with President Trump, close coordination between America and Israel, our militaries, our intelligence services, we're achieving goals at lightning speed,” he added.

These remarks from the Israeli PM come amid the soaring regional tensions in West Asia, energy security fears, and uncertainty over Tehran's political future.




(with agencies input)