Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared today that Israel “is crushing” Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and referred to the new Iranian supreme leader as a “puppet of the Revolutionary Guard” who cannot appear publicly.
“We are living through historic days for the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu in his first press conference since the start of the Israeli-American offensive against the Islamic Republic, on February 28, and military operations in Lebanon against the Shiite group Hezbollah.
The Israeli leader highlighted that the operation against the Tehran regime led to the elimination of the “former tyrant of Iran”, Ali Khamenei, and that his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, “cannot show his face in public”, in reference to his first speech as supreme leader, read today on Iranian television by a presenter.
“We have achieved our goals, more than expected, and we will continue to do so,” Netanyahu proclaimed, adding that the ongoing war aims to give Iranians the means to “overthrow the regime.”
“You can take someone to the fountain, but you can’t force them to drink,” he commented.
Furthermore, the head of the Government noted that Israel’s objectives are to prevent the Iranians from producing nuclear weapons, aiming to eliminate top scientists, and to destroy their ballistic missile capabilities.
Even if the regime does not fall, says Netanyahu, “it will become much weaker” and “a different Iran” will emerge, which will no longer represent the same threat “against which nothing could be done and against which no one could unite”.
In this sense, he maintained that Israel is receiving support, both explicitly and others that he said will become clear later.
“Thanks to an unprecedented union of forces between Israel and the United States, we have taken great steps, steps that are changing the balance of power in the Middle East and even beyond,” he considered.
In his press conference, Benjamin Netanyahu indicated that he had conveyed to the Lebanese Government that it would be better for him to confront Hezbollah instead of Israel.
“I told them: ‘You’re playing with fire if you let Hezbollah act’ (…). But if they don’t do anything, we will. How? On the ground or otherwise, I won’t go into details, but Hezbollah will pay a high price and it would be better if the Lebanese Government dealt with it”, he recommended.
Israeli forces today carried out large-scale bombings in Lebanon, which even reached the center of the country’s capital, Beirut, in response to the largest wave of air strikes launched the day before by Hezbollah in northern Israel.
Also today, the Israeli Defense Minister and the commander of the armed forces threatened to take Lebanon if Hezbollah continues its attacks against Israel, launched at the beginning of the month, shortly after the start of the offensive in the Islamic Republic and the death of Ali Khamenei on the first day of bombings in Tehran.
Benjamin Netanyahu also referred to Hezbollah’s current military capabilities, after the strong Israeli offensive in 2024 in Lebanon, indicating that at that time the Lebanese group had 150,000 ‘rockets’ and missiles, with the potential to hit towers in Tel Aviv and cause between 15,000 and 20,000 deaths.
“This did not happen because we hit them with a massive blow”, he argued, at the press conference, quoted on this topic by the Israeli press.
The prime minister acknowledged that Hezbollah fighters “still retain certain capabilities” but warned that, as in Iran, “they are very weakened” and Israel will continue to deal with them.
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