Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Iran that any attack on Israel, whether carried out directly or through proxies, would be “a terrible mistake” and would trigger a “very, very forceful” response.
Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu said the war could only end if Iran’s government falls or if Tehran accepts the consequences of what he described as “wreaking economic chaos” and “shooting at everyone”. He identified Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Jordan as among the targets of such attacks.
Netanyahu said he “fully backed” US President Donald Trump’s diplomatic efforts but maintained that Iran’s nuclear programme must come to an end, “with a deal or without a deal”.
He also said he supported Trump’s proposed condition for normalising relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, under which Riyadh would be allowed to pursue a civilian, rather than military, nuclear programme in exchange for establishing formal ties with Israel.
Regarding Lebanon, Netanyahu claimed that Israeli forces had pushed Hezbollah back between 5 and 8 miles (8km to 13km) from the Israeli-Lebanese border. He also claimed that Israeli forces had destroyed about 94 percent of Hezbollah’s estimated 150,000 missiles and rockets.
Netanyahu pointed to a new trilateral agreement that has opened direct Israeli-Lebanese talks for the first time in decades. Under the agreement, Israel is expected to withdraw from Lebanon in return for Lebanon disarming Hezbollah.
However, Netanyahu said it remained “yet to be seen” whether the Lebanese army would be able to hold the territory after the Israeli withdrawal. He added that Israel was “willing to give it a try”.
Israel currently occupies about 6 percent of Lebanon’s territory. More than 4,000 Lebanese people have been killed since Israel ramped up hostilities against the country on March 2.