Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the media this evening (Thursday) on the war against the Iranian regime. In his remarks, Netanyahu stated that he is "proud" of the Israeli people for their resilience during this conflict.
In his opening remarks, he referred to the difficulties experienced by citizens, saying, "I understand the difficulty of staying in shelters, I understand the difficulty of businesses, but your patience gives us the effort to achieve the campaign goals. Our roar echoes throughout the world."
Netanyahu said: "We are working on gradually opening the economy and ensuring appropriate compensation. We are investing a huge amount of capital in this and we need to add more."
He later said: "Iran can no longer enrich uranium and produce more ballistic missiles."
Addressing the foreign press in English, Netanyahu told the gathered journalists that they are "witnesses" to the fact that he is alive.
"Under President Trump's visionary leadership, America and Israel are acting together in Iran with great determination and unprecedented strength," Netanyahu said. "Operation Rising Lion is designed to remove the existential threats posed by the Ayatollah regime, the regime that has waged war against America and Israel, and the people of Iran, for 47 years. It chants 'Death to America,' Death to Israel,' and it delivers death to its own people."
The Prime Minister clarified that Israel has three goals, removing the nuclear threat, removing the ballistic missile threat, and "removing both of these threats before they're buried deep underground and become immune from aerial attack." The third is "creating the conditions for the Iranian people to grasp their people [and] to control their destiny."
"We are winning, and Iran is being decimated," Netanyahu declared. "Iran's missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed. Hundreds of their launchers have been destroyed, their stockpiles of missiles are being hit hard, and so are the industries that produce them."
Netanyahu dismissed claims that Israel dragged the US into a war against Iran, wondering, "Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do? Come on. President Trump always makes his decisions on what he thinks is good for America, and may I add, I think, what is also good for future generations. In this case, those interests are absolutely clear, and so is the clarity of our achievements."
He noted that President Trump has been warning of the danger posed by the Ayatollah's regime since the hostage crisis at the US embassy in 1979.
"Right before his second term, before he was reelected, I went to see him in Mar-a-Lago. The first thing he said to me was: 'Bibi, we've got to make sure that Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. He said it to me, I didn't say it to him," he recalled.