Netanyahu: IDF ‘on the way to victory’ over Iran

The Israel Defense Forces is “on the way to victory” over the threats posted by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Monday afternoon.

“We are on the path to achieving our two goals: eliminating the nuclear threat and eliminating the missile threat,” the premier said during a tour of the Tel Nof Airbase near Rehovot, speaking alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“The Israeli Air Force controls the skies over Tehran. This is a game-changer in the entire campaign,” Netanyahu continued. “We are on the way to victory, and this is made possible thanks to our heroic pilots.

“When we control Tehran’s skies, we strike these [nuclear and military] targets—regime targets—unlike the criminal Iranian regime, which targets our civilians and comes to kill children and women,” he said.

“Thank you, and with God’s help—we will act, we will succeed, and you will continue until victory,” Netanyahu told the pilots and ground crews.

Katz continued, “When the prime minister, the government and I had to make the decision whether to strike in Iran—and such decisions are not simple—we knew one thing, and that was the decisive factor: that when the decision is made, we have someone that we can rely on—you.

“Seeing what you are accomplishing together, and what is happening over the skies of Tehran, so we see that we were right,” Katz declared.

“We had someone to rely on; we still have someone to rely on,” said the defense minister. “The entire State of Israel and all the people of Israel rely on you and say: Thank you—and keep going.”

Jerusalem launched “Operation Rising Lion” against the Iranian regime because intelligence indicated that Tehran had amassed enough highly enriched uranium for nine bombs, Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday.

“All they had to do was weaponize them. We stopped that by attacking their nuclear scientists,” he said in a conversation with Fox‘s Bret Baier.

“Our great pilots are over the skies of Tehran and we’re targeting military sites, nuclear sites—that’s what we’re doing,” Netanyahu continued, noting that Iran’s missile attacks on the Jewish state have targeted civilian areas.

The premier revealed that the Islamic Republic had made plans to transfer a nuclear weapon to the Houthis, its proxy in Yemen. “That’s nuclear terrorism on a global scale; it threatens everyone,” he said.

“We attacked their chief nuclear scientist. It’s like Hitler’s nuclear scientist—would you leave them? Of course not,” he continued.

Early on Friday, more than 200 Israeli fighter jets attacked dozens of enemy targets, including military and nuclear sites, in a “preemptive, precise, combined” opening strike against Tehran’s nuclear program.

The IDF said the strikes were based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.”

Netanyahu has said the operation would “continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat,” vowing to end “the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.”