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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in a recent address that Israel has effectively dismantled Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities through two major military operations, while vowing to press forward against remaining threats and pursuing a peace agreement with Lebanon.
Speaking to a domestic audience, Netanyahu described a strategic transformation he said had altered the regional balance of power irreversibly, arguing that critics dismissing Israel's military campaign were amplifying Iranian propaganda.
Netanyahu said that precise intelligence had warned him Iran was moving to convert enriched uranium into a nuclear weapon prior to what he called Operation Lion's Cub. In response, he said Israel eliminated 12 senior Iranian nuclear scientists and struck nuclear facilities jointly with the United States, including the Fordow site, while also targeting missile stockpiles and hundreds of launchers.
He described a second wave of intelligence months later indicating that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had ordered the renewal and expansion of both nuclear and missile programs, with ambitions to bury the infrastructure deep beneath a mountain beyond the reach of B-2 bombers.
Israel responded with what Netanyahu called Operation Roar of the Lion, in which eight additional nuclear scientists were eliminated, the heavy water plant at Arak was destroyed, Iran's centrifuge array was dismantled, and a uranium production facility was struck.
"We effectively reached a situation where Iran does not have a single active enrichment facility," Netanyahu said, "and most of their capability to produce missiles has disappeared."
He also listed the elimination of Supreme Leader Khamenei, his acting successor, the defense minister, the intelligence minister, the chief of staff of the Iranian army, the commander of the Quds Force operations unit, and numerous other senior security and military figures.
He said Israel also struck three-quarters of Iran's petrochemical plants, its largest gas production facility, fuel depots, roads, railways, and dozens of weapons industry sites, along with what he described as the Revolutionary Guards' financial base in the steel industry.
Netanyahu said Israel now controls more than half of Gaza's territory and is "squeezing Hamas from every direction." In Syria, he said Israeli forces are positioned at the peak of Mount Hermon and extend to the Yarmouk River.
In Lebanon, he credited the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of approximately 150,000 missiles and rockets, he said, in roughly six hours, along with the dismantling of underground tunnels and what he called above-ground terror villages. A security buffer of eight to ten kilometers has been established, he said, to push the rocket threat away from northern Israeli communities.
He added that Israel had preempted a planned Hezbollah infiltration by Radwan Force operatives who intended to cross into the Galilee. Netanyahu said fighting with Hezbollah continues, pointing to a recent operation in which, he claimed, hundreds of fighters were eliminated in ten minutes following what he referred to as the pager operation.
In what he described as an unprecedented development, Netanyahu said Lebanon had approached Israel multiple times in the past month to begin direct peace talks, something he said had not occurred in decades. He said he had made talks conditional on Hezbollah's disarmament and a durable peace agreement. He also said other countries in the Middle East and beyond were approaching Israel for cooperation and alliances.
Netanyahu framed the overall campaign as a historic turning point, saying the Iranian regime was now "asking, begging for a ceasefire" and fighting for its own survival, weakened to what he called its lowest point in the 47 years since the revolution. He cited internal conflicts at the top of the regime and growing civilian pressure as evidence of its deterioration.
He acknowledged that enriched uranium material remains in Iran and referenced an ongoing parallel diplomatic track, noting that President Donald Trump had stated the material must leave the country either through agreement or by other means. Netanyahu said cooperation between his government and the Trump administration was at an unprecedented level.
He closed by warning that Israel's campaign was not yet concluded, crediting the country's pilots, ground crews, soldiers, and the public for enduring the conflict, and taking personal credit for what he called "brave, determined, and calculated decisions" under his leadership.
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