Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that any enriched uranium remaining in Iran would leave the country either through agreement or through renewed fighting, casting the issue as a central test of the temporary ceasefire and the next phase of the war.
“The enriched material that still remains will leave Iran,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks. “It will leave either by agreement or through a renewal of the fighting,” adding that Israel and the United States “see eye to eye on this issue.”
Netanyahu spoke after a temporary ceasefire took effect overnight in coordination with Israel, saying the pause was not the end of the war but “a station on the way” to achieving all of Israel’s objectives.
He said Israel was prepared to resume combat at any moment if necessary. “We have goals to complete, and we will achieve them either by agreement or through renewed fighting,” he said. “We are prepared to return to fighting at any moment required. The finger is on the trigger.”
Addressing the public, Netanyahu thanked Israelis for what he described as resilience on the home front during weeks of war with Iran. “When you showed resilience and sat in safe rooms and shelters, together we achieved tremendous accomplishments — our fighters at the front and you on the home front,” he said. He also bowed his head to those killed in the fighting, embraced bereaved families and sent wishes for recovery to the wounded.
Netanyahu said Israel had achieved results that until recently “seemed completely imaginary.” “Iran is weaker than ever. Israel is stronger than ever. That is the bottom line of the campaign up to this moment,” he said.
He portrayed Iran as entering negotiations from a position of weakness. “Iran is entering negotiations beaten, weaker than ever,” he said, adding that Tehran had committed to reopening the Strait of Hormuz after giving up all the preconditions it had previously set.
He also stressed the depth of coordination with the United States and President Donald Trump, dismissing doubts about their relationship. “Six weeks ago, for the first time in history, we went to war shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand with President Trump and our ally, the United States,” Netanyahu said. “Such a thing has never happened in Israel’s history. Such a partnership between Israel and the United States against our greatest enemy has also never happened in Israel’s history.”
Referring directly to Trump, Netanyahu said: “President Trump, Donald, my friend — I want to thank you for your deep friendship. It is changing the face of the Middle East.” He said the two countries had acted together to remove “an existential threat” to Israel and “the entire free world,” and were carrying out that mission “stage by stage, target by target.”
Netanyahu said that without Israel’s campaign, Iran “would have long since had nuclear weapons and thousands of missiles to destroy Israel and threaten the existence of all of us.” He said Israel had pushed back what he called a “double existential threat,” not only by destroying missiles already in existence but also factories that manufacture them. “They are not producing new missiles,” he said.
He said Israel had also dealt heavy blows to Iran’s nuclear program, including nuclear infrastructure and centrifuges, and had struck steel plants, petrochemical facilities, weapons factories, rail lines used to transport weapons, military infrastructure, the Iranian navy, dozens of aircraft and the regime’s repression apparatus. “We eliminated thousands of its operatives and proved that we can hunt them anywhere — they have nowhere to hide,” he said.
Netanyahu further said Israel had eliminated senior regime figures “from Khamenei to the top of the Revolutionary Guards,” though he did not elaborate.
Turning to Lebanon, Netanyahu said Israel had insisted that the ceasefire not include Hezbollah. “We insisted that the ceasefire would not include Hezbollah,” he said. He said Israel had delivered to Hezbollah on Wednesday the biggest blow the group had sustained since the 2024 exploding pager operation, striking 100 targets in 10 minutes in places where Hezbollah believed itself immune.
Addressing residents of northern Israel, Netanyahu said the government remained committed to restoring their security. He said Israel had created deep security belts beyond its borders in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, where he said Israeli forces control more than half the territory and are “strangling Hamas from every side.”
Netanyahu ended by rejecting criticism that downplays Israel’s military gains. “Anyone who tries to ignore these tremendous achievements of the State of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, anyone who tries to diminish them, either does not know what he is talking about or is speaking from ulterior motives,” he said. “The truth is simple: As I promised you, we have dramatically changed the face of the Middle East in Israel’s favor, and we will continue to do so, because we are the side that initiates, the side that fights and the side that wins.”