Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he could see the cracks forming in Iran’s regime with his own eyes and that the war would end before most people realized it was winding down. He declared that Iran had lost all uranium enrichment and ballistic missile capabilities after twenty days of conflict and rejected claims about Israeli manipulation of US foreign policy. Netanyahu’s press conference was energetic and forward-looking, projecting confidence about an imminent conclusion to the conflict.
The prime minister spoke about the Trump-Israel partnership with admiration and detail. He described their coordination as historically unprecedented and framed Trump as the alliance’s dominant force. Netanyahu revealed that Trump had brought his own independently formed and analytically sophisticated understanding of Iran’s nuclear threat to their discussions, enriching their shared strategic thinking.
Netanyahu confirmed Israel’s unilateral strike on the South Pars gas compound and acknowledged Trump’s request to hold off on further attacks on Iranian gas infrastructure. He treated both facts transparently, framing them as natural features of a close and functioning alliance. Netanyahu maintained throughout that Israel’s military autonomy remained fully intact.
On Iran’s Hormuz threats, Netanyahu dismissed them as hollow blackmail. He proposed pipeline corridors from the Arabian Peninsula to Israeli and Mediterranean ports as a lasting structural solution. Netanyahu argued this would permanently neutralize the Hormuz chokepoint as an Iranian weapon.
Netanyahu concluded with observations about Iran’s visible leadership chaos. He said Mojtaba had not been seen publicly and admitted he was genuinely unsure who was running the country. Netanyahu pointed to fierce competition for power in Tehran and concluded that this political instability, combined with military losses, was pushing the war toward a faster-than-expected end.