&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "As death rumours swirl, Netanyahu sits down for interview claiming Iran war past halfway; but refuses to give end date")
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his first sit-down interview since the war against Iran started, said that the conflict has crossed the halfway mark in terms of objectives. However, he stopped short of committing to any timeline for when the fighting might end. "It's definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don't want to put a schedule on it," Netanyahu told conservative US broadcaster Newsmax on Monday (Mar 30). As rumours of the Israeli PM's death continue to swirl, he clarified that he was measuring progress by missions accomplished rather than time elapsed. That distinction matters. Here's why.
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Missions vs time: When will the Iran war end?
When US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu jointly launched the offensive on February 28, Trump had suggested the operation would wrap up within four to six weeks. March 31 marks Day 32 of the US-Israel, Iran war.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a more cautious tone Monday, saying the war would likely continue for "weeks" rather than months. His statement comes amid growing public opposition as oil prices continue climbing.
What has Trump-Netanyahu's war achieved so far?
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In his interview, Netanyahu said that the war against Iran has achieved concrete gains so far, killing "thousands" of Revolutionary Guard members, with the US and Israel "close to finishing their arms industry."
"Just the whole industrial base -- wiping out all, you know, just plants, entire plants, and the nuclear program itself," he said. Netanyahu and Trump have repeatedly maintained that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. The UN's nuclear watchdog does not support the claim. Notably, last year, after the 12-day war, Trump himself claimed that he had already "obliterated" Iran's key nuclear sites.
Netanyahu also weighed in on the question of regime change in the Islamic Republic. He said he believes Iran's Islamic Republic will "collapse internally," but insisted that "at the moment, right now, what we're doing is just degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside."
Disclaimer: WION takes utmost care to accurately and responsibly report ongoing conflicts in West Asia involving Israel, Iran, US, Gulf nations and non-state actors like Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Islamic State, and others. Claims and counterclaims, disinformation and misinformation are being made online and offline. Given this context, WION cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, social media posts, photos and videos.
