Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war with Iran has crossed the halfway mark but declined to give a timeline for when it may end, in remarks to US network Newsmax.
“It’s definitely beyond the halfway point. But I don’t want to put a schedule on it,” Netanyahu said.
He said the current focus of the campaign is to weaken Iran’s capabilities. “What we’re doing is degrading their military capacity, degrading their missile capacity, degrading their nuclear capacity and also weakening them from the inside,” he said.
Netanyahu also said he believes Iran’s leadership could eventually fall on its own. “I think this regime will collapse internally,” he added, while noting that this is not the stated aim of the war.
The comments come as the conflict continues with no clear end in sight. US President Donald Trump has signalled both openness to a deal and the possibility of further military action if an agreement is not reached.
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At the same time, several Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging Washington to continue the campaign, saying Iran has not been weakened enough.
Others in the region, such as Oman and Qatar, have called for a diplomatic solution as the war enters its second month.
