Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a speech Thursday night that he launched Operation Rising Lion, which is to roll back the Iranian threat for Israel’s survival.
Netanyahu told the people of Israel
the operation will continue for many days, as it continues to remove Iran’s threat of creating weapons of mass destruction.
“For decades, the tyrants of Tehran have brazenly, openly called for Israel’s destruction. They’ve backed up their genocidal rhetoric with a program to develop nuclear weapons,” he said. “In recent years, Iran has produced enough highly enriched uranium for nine atom bombs, nine. In recent months, Iran is taking steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium, and if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year, it could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel’s very survival.”
Netanyahu said the air strikes “struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.”
“We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear weaponization program. We targeted Iran’s main enrichment facility in Natanz. We targeted Iran’s leading nuclear scientists working on the Iranian bomb,” he said. “We also struck at the heart of the Iran ballistic missile program. Last year, Iran fired 300 ballistic missiles at Israel…Soon, those missiles could carry a nuclear payload, threatening the lives not of hundreds, but of millions.”