Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made an extraordinary claim of strategic achievement on Friday, declaring that twenty days of fighting had set Iran back decades by destroying its uranium enrichment capability and ballistic missile production infrastructure. He rejected claims about Israeli manipulation of US foreign policy and predicted the conflict would end sooner than most people believed. Netanyahu’s press conference was confident and historically framed, projecting a sense of transformative achievement.
The prime minister addressed the Trump-Israel alliance with clarity and warmth. He called their coordination historically unprecedented and framed Trump as the partnership’s dominant force. Netanyahu revealed that Trump had contributed his own independently formed and analytically sophisticated understanding of Iran’s nuclear threat to their discussions, reflecting a genuine partnership of strategic equals.
Netanyahu confirmed Israel struck the South Pars gas compound alone and disclosed Trump’s request to pause further strikes on Iranian gas infrastructure. He handled both disclosures transparently, treating them as natural features of an extraordinary alliance. Netanyahu maintained throughout that Israel’s operational independence remained fully intact.
On the Hormuz issue, Netanyahu dismissed Iran’s closure threats as blackmail that would fail. He proposed overland pipeline routes from the Arabian Peninsula to Israeli and Mediterranean ports as a lasting structural solution. Netanyahu argued this would permanently neutralize the Hormuz chokepoint and create durable energy security for the region.
Netanyahu concluded with observations about Iran’s leadership breakdown. He noted Mojtaba had not been seen publicly and admitted he was genuinely unsure who was governing the country. Netanyahu pointed to fierce competition for power in Tehran and concluded that this political instability, combined with military losses, was pushing the conflict toward an end sooner than most expected.