In spite of declaring last month’s 12-day war with Iran a “great victory”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran remains a threat to the Jewish state and the West under the current leadership.
“It’s not over, it’s never over,” he told Fox News on Saturday night. “We have to keep Iran in check … Nothing is guaranteed on this, you safeguard your success.”
Netanyahu said that while the current government remains in power in Tehran, the threat remains too. “I realize that the marriage of nuclear weapons with a militant Islamic regime is the greatest threat Israel faces and the world faces,” he said.
Israel invaded Iran in a series of surprise strikes on June 13, leading to a 12-day war which brought massive destruction on both sides.
In Iran, rights group HRANA says more than 1,100 Iranians died in the war, with thousands more injured. In Israel, the death toll was 28 with thousands more injured.
A week after Israel's surprise attacks, the US struck Iran’s three major nuclear sites, Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, with President Donald Trump saying to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program.
Intelligence assessments suggest that Iran retains a hidden stockpile of enriched uranium and the technical capacity to rebuild, according to reports by Reuters.
However, as the US continues to pursue diplomatic channels with Iran to contain any continuation of its nuclear program, Netanyahu said the only way forward would be an Iran without enrichment, no ballistic missiles beyond 300 miles as stipulated under international treaties, and no ‘terror axis’, referring to Iran’s military allies across the Middle East.
“We went to war because we knew that if we didn’t, we’d end up dead. Iran was rushing to develop nuclear weapons and could have had one within a year."
“They have could had tens of thousands of ballistic missiles each weighing a ton … with unbelievable devastation …. And in a country the size of new jersey you have to act. … if you don’t act you’re not going to be around … I knew if we didn’t act now, we may never act again,” he said.
Since the founding of the Islamic Republic, Iran’s leaders have called for the end of the Jewish state. A clock in Palestine Square, in the capital, Tehran, counts down the days until Israel's destruction.
Tehran racing to build nuclear weapons, Netanyahu says
Following the damage done last year to Iran’s allies in the region, including the fall of Syria’s long-time president, Bashar al-Assad, and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, Netanyahu said Iran had turned its focus on its nuclear program in a bid to eliminate its archenemy, Israel.
“They understood they had one other way to kill us and that was to race for nuclear weapons. They had enriched uranium, but they needed to have the weapon, they didn’t have the bullet, the thing that detonates the bullet."
“They rushed to weaponize after the fall of Hezbollah and the fall of the axis and we could see that, that within a year they’d have an atomic bomb and they’d actually use it, and try to wipe us out,” Netanyahu said.
Iran has always denied allegations of building a nuclear weapon, saying its program is for peaceful purposes.
Since the ceasefire, Iran has expelled the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, accusing the group of having provided information to the US and Israel.
“Europeans can no longer move about comfortably in their own countries,” Mohammad Javad Larijani, a former senior judiciary official who also served as a top adviser to the Supreme Leader, warned in comments broadcast on state television.
“It’s entirely possible that in the near future, five drones could strike a European city.”
The statement comes as the Islamic Republic faces renewed international pressure over its nuclear program. Britain, France and Germany, three signatories to the 2015 nuclear agreement, are considering the option of triggering a snapback of United Nations sanctions if Iran is deemed non-compliant.
This month, Iran expelled the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors, accusing them of being a political tool and having given intelligence to aid the attacks made by Israel and the US on Iran's nuclear facilities last month.
Last week, the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) released a report warning that Iran poses one of the most severe state-based threats to British national security, on par with adversaries like Russia and China.
And last year, the European Parliament also issued warnings about the threat posed by Iran. A statement said: "The Iranian regime’s use of criminal networks as terrorist proxies in Europe poses a grave threat to our internal security."
Larijani's warning to Europe comes just days after he suggested US President Donald Trump could be assassinated by a drone strike while vacationing in Florida.
“Trump has done something [in supporting Israel's war on Iran] so that he can no longer sunbathe in Mar-a-Lago,” he said. “As he lies there with his stomach to the sun, a small drone might hit him in the navel. It’s very simple.”
'Israel, US may attack Iran again'
Larijani said that it is possible that Israel and the United States will seek to launch another attack on Iran.
“The United States and Israel know that if they strike again, our response will be heavier and more unexpected. America is calculating carefully."
Speaking of last month's war with Israel, sparked by surprise attacks on Iran on June 13, Larijani said: “The war began with us being surprised. We did not expect such technologies to be used in the attack. They had inserted and stationed many operatives inside Iran," over 700 Iranians arrested in the wake of the war accused of supporting Israel.
“The enemy can no longer rely on its old methods. This time, we will not be surprised," he added.
Mehdi Mohammadi, a strategic adviser to Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, posted the image in an Instagram story on Saturday.
The image showed a map of Israel with two mushroom clouds positioned over its territory—an iconography widely recognized as symbolizing atomic blasts.
A few hours later, Mohammadi posted a second Instagram story seeking to clarify his position.
“Hello friends,” he wrote. “That story was posted by the admin of my page and was deleted a few minutes later. I personally do not believe that developing nuclear weapons would enhance Iran’s deterrence. At the very least, it’s an extremely complex issue."
"Just as possessing nuclear weapons hasn’t prevented Israel from receiving heavy blows, or enabled Ukraine to strike Russia decisively, the military utility of nuclear arms is far more limited than most people imagine,” he added.
Iran continues to deny any ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, dismissing international concerns as politically driven.
Last month, American airstrikes targeted major Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. The attacks came after days of Israeli campaign against Iran where the Jewish State used cruise missiles and deep-penetration bombs to damage infrastructure and affiliated military units.
In October, a group of lawmakers called on Iran's Supreme National Security Council to review the country's defense doctrine and consider adopting nuclear weapons.
