Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a comprehensive view of the conflict’s progress on Friday, declaring that Iran’s uranium enrichment and ballistic missile capabilities had been wiped out in twenty days of warfare while also noting visible fractures within Tehran’s new leadership structure. He dismissed claims about Israel pulling the US into the conflict as fiction and expressed confidence that the war was heading toward a faster-than-expected conclusion.
Netanyahu addressed his partnership with Donald Trump with pride and precision. He described the coordination between them as the closest bond between two world leaders he had ever seen, while positioning Trump as the alliance’s leader and himself as the dedicated ally. Netanyahu noted that Trump had brought an independent and deeply informed understanding of the Iranian nuclear threat to the table, enriching their shared strategic thinking.
The South Pars strike was confirmed as an independent Israeli operation, and Netanyahu acknowledged that Trump had asked him to hold off on further attacks on Iranian gas facilities. He handled this disclosure with diplomatic care, presenting it as evidence of an alliance in constant communication. Netanyahu made clear that Israel’s independence in military decisions had not been subordinated to any external request.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Netanyahu called Iran’s closure threats a form of global blackmail that would prove ineffective. He proposed an alternative infrastructure route via pipelines from the Arabian Peninsula to Israeli and Mediterranean ports. Netanyahu argued this would permanently remove the Hormuz bottleneck as an instrument of Iranian pressure.
Netanyahu’s final remarks centered on Tehran’s internal disarray. He publicly admitted uncertainty about who was leading Iran, given that the anticipated new supreme leader had not appeared publicly during the conflict. The visible competition among Iran’s ruling factions, Netanyahu concluded, suggested the war was reaching its final stages sooner than most outside observers had calculated.