In his most sweeping statement of the conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Friday that Iran had been reduced to virtually nothing militarily in just twenty days, losing both its uranium enrichment capability and its ballistic missile production. He predicted the war would end far sooner than most observers expected and denied reports that Israel had been responsible for drawing the United States into the conflict. Netanyahu closed the press conference on a note of assured confidence and forward-looking vision.
The prime minister described his relationship with Trump as the most closely aligned and coordinated partnership between two world leaders in recent memory. He pushed back forcefully against the idea that Israel had manipulated Trump into joining the conflict, noting that Trump was a deeply independent leader with his own sophisticated understanding of the Iranian nuclear threat. Netanyahu said Trump had actually contributed his own analytical insights to their shared strategic discussions.
Netanyahu confirmed that Israel had acted alone in striking the South Pars gas compound and disclosed that Trump had personally requested a pause in further attacks on Iranian gas infrastructure. He presented these facts transparently, framing both the military action and the diplomatic exchange as natural features of a close alliance. Netanyahu maintained that Israel’s right to independent military decisions remained fully intact.
On the Strait of Hormuz, Netanyahu dismissed Iran’s closure threats as hollow blackmail that would fail. He proposed building overland pipeline corridors from the Arabian Peninsula to Israeli and Mediterranean ports as a permanent alternative to Hormuz dependency. Netanyahu framed this infrastructure vision as part of the post-conflict regional transformation he intended to pursue.
Netanyahu ended by highlighting the visible fractures within Iran’s new leadership. He said he did not know who was running Iran, noting that the anticipated new supreme leader had not appeared publicly during the entire conflict. Netanyahu saw these signs of internal chaos as confirming his prediction that the war was heading toward a conclusion much sooner than the world currently expected.