Israel is not seeking an endless war with Iran and will coordinate with the United States on when to end the fighting, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said Tuesday, declining to set a public timeline for the conflict’s end.
"We will continue until the minute that we and our partners think that is appropriate to stop," Sa'ar told journalists in Jerusalem alongside his German counterpart.
"We are not looking for an endless war," he said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said earlier in Berlin that concern was growing across Europe over the conflict and that there appeared to be no clear plan to bring it to an end.
"We want to remove, for the long term, existential threats from Iran to Israel," Sa'ar said when asked what victory would look like for the Israeli government.
He described Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by the Israeli military on the first day of the war, as an extremist.
Israel has said its goal is to eliminate Iran’s clerical rule by destroying its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and creating conditions that could allow Iranians to overthrow their rulers.
Sa'ar said the conflict could create conditions for Iranians to "regain their freedom," though he acknowledged such a change might not happen during the war and could come afterward.
"We must not miss this opportunity with partial results," he said.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the first senior foreign official to publicly visit Israel since the war began, said he believes Israel and Washington remain open to a diplomatic solution that could end the fighting.
However, he said any such agreement would have to address Iran’s nuclear and missile programs as well as its support for regional militias, terms that Tehran has so far indicated it is not prepared to accept.