Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the conflict could end sooner than expected, claiming Iran has been severely weakened by coordinated US-Israel air operations.
According to Netanyahu, three weeks of airstrikes have damaged Iran’s ability to enrich uranium and to manufacture intercontinental ballistic missiles. He said Iran’s missile and drone stockpiles are being hit on a large scale and would be destroyed, while factories producing components needed for nuclear weapons are also being targeted.
The war began on the 28th after the US and Israel launched operations against Iran citing a nuclear threat. Iran has responded with attacks on gas facilities in Israel and neighbouring countries, and on US military bases in the West Asia region.
Netanyahu said Israel paused further strikes on Iran’s major gas facilities at the request of US President Donald Trump, though he described an earlier strike on the South Pars gas site as Israel’s own decision. He added that while operations have so far been limited to airstrikes, ground action remains a possibility.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesperson Gen Ali Mohammad Naini had earlier said Iran’s capabilities had not diminished and that the war would continue until opponents were exhausted. Hours after that statement, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the report said.
