3 min readJul 1, 2026 01:58 PM IST
First published on: Jul 1, 2026 at 01:58 PM IST
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country’s pursuit of “total victory” against Iran and its proxies “never ends,” highlighting Israel’s military achievement over the past three years and emphasising that there was still a lot of work left to do.
In an interview on Channel 14, Netanyahu was questioned if his Gaza war pledge to achieve “total victory” was still in force.
“It never ends. Do you want to live in the Middle East or in the world? You have to be very strong. And we are very strong,” the Israeli prime minister said.
“Israel is stronger than it has ever been, and we have put off threats and weakened (our adversaries) considerably. We have more work to do. We will take care of what is left of the Iranian axis,” he added.
He further lauded Israel’s military operations that eliminated much of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s leadership and the buffer zones established by his country in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
On being asked to specify the countries Israel expects to reach peace agreements with, Netanyahu said, “I’m not naming names because I want to deliver results. But everyone will see them… there are understandings with Lebanon that nobody foresaw. There are contacts with other countries as well. I can’t elaborate.”
“When you’re strong, people form alliances with you, and they make peace with you as well,” he added.
Netanyahu further said that Israel could strike Iran again “if necessary”, reiterating his long-standing pledge to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“If necessary,” repeating his vow that “as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” he said.
Iran’s Ghalibaf claims Israel making desperate attempts to destroy US-Iran ceasefire
Meanwhile, Iran’s Parliament Speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, claimed that Israel was making desperate attempts to destroy the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Tehran and Washington.
He further asserted that recent military escalations in Lebanon by Israel were the country’s panicked reactions to the terms of the accord.
In an interview with ISNA, Ghalibaf said that his visit to Switzerland was targeted at the implementation of provisions of the memorandum, but the recent developments in Lebanon delayed the process.
“The Zionist regime’s entire effort was to disrupt this agreement as much as it could, because the first paragraph of this agreement stipulates that the war should end based on Lebanon’s territorial sovereignty within the official borders and geographical map of this country, that no military operations should be carried out, that the people should return to their homes, and that the enemy should withdraw from the lands it occupied,” Ghalibaf said.
“For this reason, on Thursday and Friday, the Zionist regime intensified its crimes because it knew it had to evacuate these areas, and tried to destroy some important points, take them over, and cause damage to somehow make the implementation of the agreement difficult,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo/AP) 
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