Israel-Iran conflict: Netanyahu says Tehran ‘wants to kill’ Trump to eliminate threat to its nuclear programme

“He’s a decisive leader. He never took the path that others took to try to bargain with them in a way that is weak, giving them basically a pathway to enrich uranium, which means a pathway to the bomb, padding it with billions and billions of dollars,” Netanyahu said.

“He took up this fake agreement and basically tore it up. He killed Qasem Soleimani. He made it very clear, including now, ‘You cannot have a nuclear weapon, which means you cannot enrich uranium.’ He’s been very forceful, so for them, he’s enemy number one,” the Israeli PM added.

He further alleged that Tehran orchestrated two failed assassination attempts on Trump during his presidential campaign in 2024.

“These people who chant, ‘Death to America,’ tried to assassinate President Trump twice,” Netanyahu said.

“Do you want these people to have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities?” the Israeli prime minister asked.

“Of course not. So we’re defending ourselves, but we’re also defending the world,” he said, clarifying his stance on setting grounds for the attack on Tehran.

Watch the full exclusive interview as Israeli PM @netanyahu responds to @BretBaier following the terror regime of Iran’s missile blitz. pic.twitter.com/Dk0VIDqgxH

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On being asked if he had any intel to back the incendiary accusation against Iran of planning assassination attempts on Trump, Netanyahu said, “Through proxies, yes.”

“Through their intel, yes. They want to kill him.”

‘Junior partner’

The Israeli prime minister further alleged that Trump was not the only target of the regime, as Iran fired a missile into the bedroom window of his home.

“Look, they also tried to kill me, but I’m his junior partner. They understand that President Trump is a great threat to Iran’s plans to weaponise nuclear weapons and use them,” he said.

He then highlighted that his country was facing an “imminent threat” of nuclear destruction, and he was left with no other choice than to act aggressively in the “12th hour.”

“We were facing an imminent threat, a dual existential threat,” he said.

“One, the threat of Iran rushing to weaponise their enriched uranium to make atomic bombs with a specific and declared intent to destroy us. Second, a rush to increase their ballistic missile arsenal to a capacity of 3,600 weapons a year…. Within three years, 10,000 ballistic missiles, each weighing a ton, coming in at Mach 6, right into our cities, as you saw today… and then in 26 years, 20,000 [missiles]. No country can sustain that, and certainly not a country the size of Israel, so we had to act.”