Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a recorded statement this evening (Saturday night) against the backdrop of the ceasefire with Iran and the fighting with Hezbollah.
Here is the full statement.
""The campaign is not over yet, but we can already clearly state - we have historic achievements.".
I want you to remember where we were - Iran tried to strangle us; Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Assad regime in Syria, the militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, Iran itself. I mean, they wanted to strangle us - and we are strangling them. They threatened us with annihilation - and now they are fighting to survive. We prepared them. We have more to do, and I will detail it shortly, but I want to start with Iran itself, with the head of the octopus, because I have dedicated a significant part of my life to preventing one thing - that this threatening regime obtain nuclear weapons with which it seeks to annihilate the Jewish state and bring an end to Jewish history.
I spoke about it in Congress and the UN and in various parliaments. I approved all kinds of actions, most of them covert, to delay them - and we did delay them, but the world, the world didn't listen. Many said - 'It's not that bad' - 'It's not even that bad that Iran will have nuclear weapons'. I heard these voices not only outside, I heard them even within us. And I, as the Prime Minister of Israel, the head of the one and only Jewish state, could not accept that. And the great change took place that evening of 'Am Kalavi'.
When I told you that our brave pilots were flying in the skies of Iran - flying in the skies of Iran and striking targets all over Iran, we were the first to break the barrier of fear - the fear of operating in Iran itself. I remember the feeling I had - what excitement, what pride. A shiver. And I know you all experienced it too.
We were the first to act because we knew what was at stake. But if I had told you a year ago that our pilots would fly in Iran, who would have believed it? If I had told you a year ago that the United States of America, the most powerful power in the world, would fight alongside us shoulder to shoulder, wing to wing for nearly 40 days against the common enemy, who would have believed it? But all of this happened because we initiated it, we acted, we attacked.
And why did we go on the campaign? Because Iran was very close to obtaining nuclear weapons and to acquiring the ability to produce missiles, thousands upon thousands of missiles. Not a handful of missiles a day that would fall on us, many hundreds every day. Two existential threats that we had to keep out of our heads.
If we hadn't gone to 'Am Kalavi' and then to 'Ari's Roar', Iran would already have had atomic bombs - and we prevented that. And I'll tell you how we prevented it, because before 'Am Kalavi', accurate intelligence reached me this time, in time, and it told us that Iran was beginning to work to turn enriched uranium into a nuclear weapon. And as soon as we received this intelligence, we went into action. We eliminated 12 of their senior nuclear scientists, we attacked their nuclear facilities together with our American friends, you remember the attack on Fordow with the B2. What an excellent job they did. And we attacked both missile caches and hundreds of launchers. And all of this removed from us an immediate double existential threat.
But after 'Am Kalavi', a few months later, accurate intelligence again reached me, and this intelligence showed that Khamenei had ordered the renewal and even expansion of both the nuclear industry and the missile industry. I use the word 'industry' and mean much more broadly underground.
He wanted to bury both the missile production and the nuclear production deep beneath a high mountain, in such a way that even the B2 planes could not reach it. And again we could not sit on the sidelines. We went into action. We in 'Harry's Roar' eliminated eight more nuclear scientists who were dealing with weapons this time, this is the production of weapons. Not only the enriched uranium but the weapons, without it it is impossible to produce atomic bombs.
We destroyed the Arak water plant, we destroyed their entire centrifuge system and also a uranium production plant. We basically got to the point where Iran doesn't have a single active enrichment plant and most of their ability to produce missiles is gone. They still have missiles, they have a missile stockpile that is getting depleted.
That means we succeeded here in crushing the nuclear program, crushing the missile program, and we also had another goal: crushing the regime in Iran. Weakening it to its lowest, weakest level since the establishment of the regime 47 years ago.
And I want to tell you what we did: We eliminated Supreme Leader Khamenei, his acting successor Larijani, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Intelligence, the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Army, the commander of the Quds Force operations unit, the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij commanders, the senior security officials, the top intelligence officials, the senior Air Force officials, the person responsible for the drones, the person responsible for transferring funds to terrorist organizations, the commander of the Iranian Navy, the Iranian fleet in the Caspian Sea, dozens of headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards and Internal Security, dozens of helicopters and transport planes, the money machine of the Revolutionary Guards - that's the steel industry in Iran and three-quarters of the petrochemical plants in Iran - of which the Revolutionary Guards are alive. We hit the largest gas production plant in Iran, a fuel depot, bridges and railroads that were used to transfer forces and weapons.
In dozens of factories for the weapons industry, and there are many, many more details. I'll spare you, but we didn't spare them.
We have made a huge change here. Some people say, 'We have no achievements.' There are huge achievements, and this is reflected in this weakened regime that is begging for a ceasefire. This is reflected in internal conflicts at the top. We know about this, we see their increasing difficulty in meeting the needs of the citizens. This is reflected in the profound weakening of the regime of terror. Iran is no longer the same Iran, and Israel is not the same Israel either.
Those who threatened to destroy us are now fighting for their own survival. And as for the octopus arms - here too we have done huge things. First of all, we established a rule: Israel will not tolerate a situation where terrorist organizations sit on its border. That is why we have created deep security strips in enemy territory; in Gaza, we control over 50% of the Strip's territory. We are gripping Hamas from all sides, and we will deal with it. In Syria, we are at the peak of Mount Hermon and we reach as far as Yarmouk, and there we also care as I cared for the Druze owners of our capital, our brothers.
A polar change has come to Lebanon. You remember Nasrallah, he multiplied - 'The Jews are spider webs' so he was eliminated, and what we eliminated along with him was his huge missile stockpile. A stockpile of 150,000 missiles and rockets that we destroyed in 6 hours, the vast majority. They have more rockets left, we're taking care of that. But they planned something else, they planned for thousands of terrorists from Radwan's force to arrive near the border line, invade and occupy the Galilee. We eliminated that.
First of all, we killed many of them, crushed all the underground they had prepared for the tunnels, the terror villages above ground, and created a security zone of between 8-10 km to keep the anti-tank threat away from our settlements. We are still fighting them, it's not over yet. You saw just a few days ago - we carried out the most powerful operation since the beepers. We eliminated hundreds of terrorists at once, in ten minutes - and our hand is still outstretched. This continues all the time. We are fighting Hezbollah and it's over with us, it's over with me to restore security to the residents of the north. They deserve it just like all citizens of Israel.
I want to tell you what happened here: As a result of this strength that we have demonstrated, Lebanon has approached us in the last month, has approached us several times, to begin direct peace talks. This has never happened before in history, it actually happened once decades ago, but now they have approached us and I have approved it subject to two things - we want to achieve the disarmament of Hezbollah and we want a real peace agreement, a peace agreement that will last for generations.
And I want to tell you one more thing, it's not just Lebanon that's turning to us. Many other countries, both in the Middle East and beyond, are turning to cooperation, to alliances. They see our strength, strength brings us closer just as weakness pushes us further apart.
Strength brings us closer, and Israel today is stronger than ever. This small Israel, small perhaps in territory but huge in spirit and determination, and we have become the strongest regional power. Everyone understands this. And in some ways, a world power as well. So they tell us, 'There are no achievements,' there are tremendous achievements here! This is a historic change. We crushed the nuclear weapons, we crushed the missiles, we crushed the regime, we have an unprecedented alliance with our great friend, the President of the United States, between the IDF and of course the US military, relationships that have never existed.
Now these achievements are not over yet. There is still enriched material in Iran. And as President Trump said - it needs to be taken out. Either it comes out by agreement, or it comes out by other means. But we are working in cooperation between me and President Trump and between Israel and the US that has never been before. These are achievements that change the entire balance of power. And Israel is a different Israel, stronger than ever.
These achievements, there are those who cancel them, who dwarf them, of course first of all Iran - and Iran's propaganda resonates in our media channels. And the propaganda of our political opponents - resonates in Iran's media.
But that doesn't change the truth - there is a huge, tremendous change here, and it comes thanks to our brave pilots, our brave female pilots, our ground crews who work around the clock, our heroic commanders and soldiers, and the fallen who fell for us and the wounded in body and mind, whose recovery we hope for.
And this comes thanks to you, the citizens of Israel. You stood firm the whole time, I salute you. And this comes thanks to the courageous, determined, and informed decisions of the government under my leadership, and I want to tell you again, with open arms.
"With a wolf he will rise up, and a lion will exalt himself" - and with God's help we will continue to act together - and we will continue to do so forever.".
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