‘Won’t stop until we remove threat’: Israeli FM says delayed Iran’s nuclear bomb by ‘at least two or three years’

Israel has estimated that its military operations against Iran have delayed Tehran’s potential to develop a nuclear weapon by “at least two or three years”, Israel’s foreign minister said in an interview published on Saturday (Jun 21). Gideon Saar told the German newspaper Bild that Israeli strikes, which targeted hundreds of nuclear and military sites, have shown “very significant” results. The attacks have also killed Iran’s top military commanders and nuclear scientists.

“According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,” said Saar. “The fact that we took out those people who led and pushed the weaponisation of the nuclear program is extremely important,” he added.

“We already achieved a lot, but we will do whatever we can do. We will not stop until we will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat.”

After Israel launched drone and missile attacks on June 13, Iran launched retaliatory strikes on Israel. While Tel Aviv has claimed that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons, Tehran has denied the claims consistently.

Saar added that the Israeli government had not “defined regime change” in the Islamic Republic as “an objective in this war.” He added, “At least until now, we didn’t do that.”

In a similar statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday (Jun 19) that a change of Iran’s regime was not a goal of Israel’s attacks, but could be a result.

“The matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people. There is no substitute for this,” Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Kan public television. “And that’s why I didn’t present it as a goal. It could be a result, but it’s not a stated or formal goal that we have.”