Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference this evening (Monday) and responded for the first time to the agreement between the US and Iran and its implications.
"My life's mission is the fight against the Iranian nuclear program. With or without an agreement - Iran will not have nuclear weapons, not today or tomorrow. People ask what we have achieved, and the answer is: we have removed the threat of immediate annihilation from us," Netanyahu said.
He added, "We caused enormous damage to Iran's economy, some estimate it at a trillion dollars."
"The struggle is not over and done with, we must continue to stand guard, be strong and determined, and defend ourselves as much as necessary. This is true against Iran's terrorist arms, and not only against it," Netanyahu said.
The Prime Minister emphasized, "After October 7, I established a simple principle - we will not allow terrorist organizations to establish themselves on our borders. We have broken through the barrier of fear and we are harming those who seek our lives."
Addressing his relationship with the US president, he said, "Trump is the President of the US and I am the Prime Minister of Israel. There are times when President Trump and I do not see eye to eye. We need to stand up for Israel's security interests wisely."
Asked if he intends to fight against Trump's nuclear deal like he expected the previous government to fight against Obama's, Netanyahu rejected the comparison.
"The basic difference between the situation then and the situation now is that every agreement is accompanied by a credible military threat (on Iran). Then, there was no military threat. Today, because of what we did, not only the US, but also because of us, because we went in with 14,000 bombing runs, that's the biggest difference, there is a credible military threat," Netanyahu explained.