War with Iran could end faster than people think: Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he believed the war in Iran could finish sooner than "people think", a day before the Israel-Iran war completed three weeks on Friday.

Addressing a press conference in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu said, "Despite the fake news that is unfortunately being spread since the start of the war 20 days ago, we are winning, and Iran is being decimated. Iran’s missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed...I also see this war ending a lot faster than people think."

Talking about Israel's Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli Prime Minister said, "In Rising Lion, we destroyed missiles and a lot of the nuclear infrastructure. But what we’re destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they’re trying to produce. We’re wiping out their industrial base in a way that we didn’t do before...."

"Under President Trump’s visionary leadership, America and Israel are acting together in Iran with great determination and unprecedented strength. Operation [Roaring] Lion is designed to remove the existential threats posed by the Ayatollah regime, the regime that has waged war against America and Israel and the people of Iran for 47 years," said the Israeli Prime Minister adding that there are three goals that Washington and Tel Aviv want to achieve through this war.

"One, removing the nuclear threat. Second, removing the ballistic missile threat, and removing both of these threats before they’re buried deep underground and become immune from aerial attack. And third,..creating the conditions for the Iranian people to grasp their freedom, to control their destiny...those are goals that are achievable, but I’m not going to put a schedule or a stopwatch on it. I think we have goals that have to be achieved, and we’re not counting the days," he said.

Talking about the leadership in Iran, Netanyahu said, "I'm not sure who's running Iran right now. Mojtaba, the replacement ayatollah, has not shown his face... What we see is that there is a lot of tensions inside the people who are edging for the top."

"I think it’s important that they know that if they think they’re going to target the world, target the US President...they themselves are being targeted...We're seeing cracks, and we're trying to propagate them as fast as we can, not only in the top command, we're seeing cracks in the field," he said.

On the question on the attack on an Iranian gas field and whether it was a concerted effort of the US and Israel, Netanyahu said, Israel acted on its own, which sparked a retaliatory strike by Tehran on Qatar's main gas hub.

"Israel acted alone against the Asaluyeh gas compound... President Trump asked us to hold off on future attacks and we're holding out."

Earlier US President Donald Trump said that he told Israel not to carry out any more such strikes. "I told him, don't do that, and he won't do that," Trump told reporters.

On Iran's blackmail to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut, Netanyahu said that attempts to close the strategic waterway would fail. "The death cult in Iran is trying to blackmail the world by closing a key international maritime route, the Straits of Hormuz. It won’t work. Israel is helping in its own way, in intel and other means, the American effort to open the Straits of Hormuz."

Talking about alternative routes if the Strait of Hormuz stays closed, the Israeli Prime Minister said, "Instead of going through the chokepoints of the Hormuz Straits and the Bab-al-Mandab Straits in order to have the flow of oil, just have oil pipelines, gas pipelines going west through the Arabian Peninsula right up to Israel, right up to our Mediterranean ports, and you’ve just done away with the chokepoints for forever. That is definitely possible."

On a question of whether he misled the US goverbment into starting the war, Netanyahu denied the charge. "I misled no one, and I didn’t have to convince President Trump about the need to prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program, putting it underground, and being able to launch nuclear-tipped missiles at the US. He understood that."

"America is not fighting for Israel. America is fighting with Israel for a common goal: to protect our future, to protect civilization against these barbarians," he said.

Tensions in West Asia have been escalating as the US-Israel war with Iran completed three weeks on Friday.